Total Revamped All-Stars
by SideshowJazz1
Summary: Alternate version of Total Drama All-Stars, sequel to Total Mutated Revenge Of The Island. A year after Revenge, Danni Kramer is asked back to compete in an All-Star season, but not the one you know. Courtney and Jo are not back. But why are Beth and Owen there? And what is that robot doing? Find out on Total! Revamped! All-Stars! Lightning/OC.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! So, on last story, "Total Mutated Revenge Of The Island", Danni Kramer's big brother persuaded her to audition for Total Drama Revenge Of The Island". She got on there, played hard, and ended up in the finale. However, at the last minute, good guy Mike won the million dollars. Now, it's been a year, and Danni has just received an email, bringing with it a tonne of pain, and a million-dollar gain. What will happen? Find out right here, right now, on Total! Revamped! All-Stars!**

 **Disclaimer: I just stole Chris' opening. I don't own that style of introduction. Nor do I own anything you recognize from "Total Drama All-Stars", or anything you recognize that I stole from another season.**

 **The tweaks for this season will be a little different from the last two I've done. Because All-Stars has a preestablished cast, there will be several differences. Some of the old cast members will be traded out for others, and I've even added some. The Revenge Of The Island cast has also changed, due to the last story. And sorry to everyone who expected me to include Dawn as she was in the final seven last season, but I actually do have a reason. I needed another male Hero, and the Heroes team was already female-heavy as it was (I leveled it out with having more males on the Villains team, which also meant I cut one villainess).**

 **So who's still coming back and who's new to the cast? Let's take a look!**

It was the summer of twelfth grade when I got the message. Everything was going well. The Total Drama hype had mostly died down with total jerk Chris McLean being in jail, I had good grades, and I was ready to go to cheer camp and enjoy it more than I had in tenth grade.

Then the email arrived. It was from the Total Drama producers. They apparently wanted me to come back to an All-Star season, since Chris was out of jail and the fans wanted more. And it was in my contract. I could either pay a huge amount of money that I didn't have, or return to Camp Wawanakwa.

I mean, okay, Revenge Of The Island ended all right. No one died, and I actually got something out of the game. But I didn't want to play all over again. And if it was an All-Star season, who was I going to have to fight? I knew the contestants I was with pretty well, but who knew what the old ones were like off-camera?

And more importantly, which of the old contestants would be there? I'd already met Heather briefly, and she was sure to be on the season. Probably Alejandro, too, if he survived that lava spray (part of me hoped that wasn't the case – no one needed the Villain of Perfection around). And I couldn't help expecting the other finalists, too. Gwen, Owen and Beth could be OK, but I really didn't want to have to compete against Duncan. I had nothing against him (Really, if I was him, I would've dumped Courtney way earlier), but he was too strong as a competitor.

I couldn't think who else I might be competiing against outside of my cast. And as for my cast members...I just hoped Scott wasn't back. No doubt he still held a grudge against me.

I immediately jumped on Facebook and sent the same message to everyone: _Did you get asked back for an All-Star season?_

I didn't actually have Jo, Staci or Scott online (Scott said he didn't even have Facebook, since he lived way out on a farm), but I got messages back from Brick, Zoey and Mike instantly, all saying they got the message. Dawn, surprisingly, didn't get one, even though she was in the final seven. Anne Maria eventually messaged back and said she was returning.

Well, OK. Some of my friends were coming back.

Lightning didn't message me. Well, he didn't have to, really. We'd already arranged to go out the day after I got the email. The first thing he said when he picked me up was "You know what, cutie? This summer, we're gonna take the reality TV world by storm. And this time, we'll both get to the finale."

I didn't need the power to read between the lines. "They asked you back? Awesome! I hope we're on the same team again!"

"Sha-totally!" Lightning agreed. "Lightning gotta win with his girl there, or winning ain't...uh...well, it's still winning...but not as sweet!"

I giggled. I was used to those kinds of remarks where Lightning hadn't quite figured out the end of a statement he'd begun. Besides, he did it a lot less than he had when we started dating. I'd soon figured out that he was not a great student, so I suggested being his tutor. Well, since he trained me in athletics, I tutored him as both payment and payback. And it seemed like he'd actually gotten smarter – not just in books, but in general. Which was weird, because we usually spent half the time I set for tutoring making out. I couldn't help it. I would say "I'm supposed to be helping you get this homework done. When we finish up to here, I'll give you five minutes, okay?" We'd get that part done, then five minutes would stretch into thirty, and both of us would be shirtless. But somehow, it actually seemed to work, since Lightning passed enough of junior year so he wouldn't have to repeat it, and seemed to just be generally better at brain functions.

Me? Well, I could run faster than I could that time last year, and my grade in Gym had improved (yeah...the only reason I passed before that was because of credit for cheerleading – I was athletic, but the only thing I excelled in during Gym was gymnastics, because lower body strength was so important in everything else). And I could score a goal in soccer once in a while.

Anyway, even though I wasn't really that keen to be going back to Camp Wawanakwa, there was still a certain sense of anticipation in me as I was getting packed. According to the email, we'd get picked up in a helicopter and taken to the camp that way. Hopefully Chris wouldn't make the copter explode before we got there.

And then, the day came. I was so busy looking around during the ride to see who was there and who wasn't.

First of all, the good news. Courtney was NOT there. Score! But Heather was. Well, I guess she had to. Courtney hadn't been a finalist, even though she'd gotten pretty far twice. I guess the first season where she got unfairly kicked off counted against her.

Duncan was also there. Not great. But at least he was holding hands with Gwen, his girlfriend, and I knew she was all right.

Their opponents in the final were there, too – Beth and Owen. The latter was very excited to be coming back, while Beth was looking a bit overwhelmed. I caught her eye and grinned. She smiled back.

There were three more people from the original cast – less deserving players, but all of them had been in the final seven, and not all of us Revenge players had made that. The most deserving was probably Sierra, who would've made the final three if she hadn't accidentally blown up the plane when she put sparklers next to fuel when she brought out Cody's birthday cake. But there was also Lindsay, who accidentally voted herself off in a final six deal, and Justin, who lost out two episodes before because he refused to fight Courtney. Oh well, true All-Stars would be harder to crush. I had to count my blessings. Besides, I liked Lindsay, and without Cody around, Sierra would probably be okay.

As for the Revenge cast – just Mike, Zoey, Lightning, Anne Maria, Scott (thanks a lot, fate), Brick and I. That was all fifteen of us.

Like last season, each of us could hear the moment we were introduced by Chris through a speaker on the plane. Each of us were meant to jump out of the plane, a few feet away from the island. So yeah, we'd have to swim. Oh well, I could just wear my pyjamas early and dry my TD outfit overnight.

I was the third introduced, after Mike (all his alters mentioned), and Zoey, who dived out after Chef had literally _thrown_ Mike out.

Then I heard Chris saying "Charming cheerleader with a competitive heart, Danni!"

"No way is Chef shoving me out!" I yelled, jumping into a diving position before he had a chance. He still managed to throw out most of the others before they could jump, though. Lucky Sierra avoided it. She was last to be introduced, jumping down in cannonball position with a cry of "For Codyyyyyyy!"

Oh, and there was Ezekiel, but he was just a joke competitor who was thrown to the other side of the island. I guess the environmentalists who arrested Chris got him out of there?...Well, it would've been better if they hadn't allowed the authorities to let Chris out on parole. I mean, they could've just replaced the host.

But after the introduction, we were left to struggle to shore, ready for another season.

Sort of.

 **I know, I know, a short chapter. We'll get into the real stuff next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Let's continue on with the new version of Episode 1! Thanks for your review, Nicky Haugh, That British Guy (What makes her less worthy than the other finalists? And don't repeat reviews – the guest ones don't always show up for a few days), OmniPlanckInstant, yeezynight14 and RebelToasters12, Bloodylilcorpse, and Pokemon FTW.**

"Greetings, old friends!" Chris said cheerfully.

Heather was the first to speak up. "I am not your friend."

Lindsay smiled at her. "Awww, somebody misses her honey bunny."

Heather shoved her. "Who? Alejandro? As if! I'm _glad_ he isn't back, that handsome jerk."

"Well, that makes two of us." I murmured, shooting a sly smirk at Heather. "Chris, can you just get on with it and sort us into teams? And make sure I'm not with the Queen of Mean or the model with the weird face?" I purposefully directed my gaze at Justin.

The Hawaiian model gave a sigh. "I knew it! The agents said it would be fine, but it's obvious now. They only want my face because it's famous. Total Drama Action ruined it."

I laughed out loud. I couldn't help it. "Justin, stop stressing. The show didn't ruin your face. It was ruined before TD got to it. Nah, just kidding, you're still gorgeous. Just not my type, okay?" Hey, I might as well be nice, in case I did end up on a team with Justin.

There were a few things we needed to know before the show began, though. First of all, the toxic waste had been cleared. No more mutants or possible mutations. Awesome news.

Second, the cabin that our team was supposed to have had been reconstructed. Each night, the winning team (or individual winner after the merge) would get to sleep there and spend the free day there, too. Basically, they kept it from the moment they won a challenge to the start of the next challenge. Even better news!

Finally, the teams would be split into Heroes vs Villains, depending on our past performances. I glanced around at some of my friends. I hoped to be a Hero, but what if me happily splitting them up last season counted against me?

Chris started calling out names. "Justin, Heather, Duncan, Anne Maria, Lightning, Scott and Gwen. From now on, you guys are the Villainous Vultures!"

Gwen was the first to react. " _Wha?_ Why am _I_ on the Villain team?"

I spoke up. "Gwen, no one thinks you're a real villain, except maybe Chris. And Courtney. They needed one heroic teammate, and they used you hooking up with Duncan as an excuse."

Gwen relaxed a little bit, but she still looked upset. Duncan put a hand on her shoulder. "Being bad is cool, and now we're on the same team," he pointed out, "So that's good, right?"

"I guess." Gwen mumbled.

Chris called out the rest of the names – that's Mike, Zoey, Beth, Owen, Lindsay, Sierra, Brick and I. "You guys are the Heroic Hamsters!"

"Wait a sec!" Anne Maria called out, scowling. "No fair! They got more people than us!"

"I needed a seat on the plane for that Ezekiel prank." Chris argued. When he got no joy, he sighed. "Fine, you can have the robot."

Oh yeah, I forgot. There was this thing called the Drama Machine, and now it was on the island. And when Chris said that, it started beeping and wheeled itself over to the team. Then it edged up close to Heather. "Keep your distance, toaster!" she snapped.

Then, it was time to start the challenge. Since the season was going to be based on earlier challenges made harder, Chris told us that we'd start with finding the key to the spa hotel. And we'd have to do it involving the first part of the first challenge ever, which involved diving off a cliff into shark-infested waters (except when they did it, all they had to do was land in a shark-free zone).

"Meet me at the base of the cliff in ten minutes, chop chop!" And with that, an intern drove the host away, while we had to walk.

"Wait!" Mike called after him. "Shouldn't we change into our swimsuits or something first?"

"Sorry! No time!"

Pretty much everyone on my team walked in twos. I mean, on the Villains, Duncan and Gwen were walking together and the robot insisted on staying close to Heather, but in general, it was just the Heroes who were walking together. Since Mike and Zoey were together, Beth and Lindsay were chatting about something and Owen was introducing himself to Brick, I ended up with Sierra.

"So, did you have a contract to come back like us, or did you just want to?" I asked the taller girl. "I mean, I know the rest of your cast's contracts expired, but you joined the show later on."

"Well, both!" said Sierra in her usual bubbly voice. "I really don't like Chris, but my mom does. She would kill me if I didn't come back to this show! And plus, just cause I don't like Chris doesn't mean I don't like Total Drama! I really, REALLY wanted to see the island."

"So..." I paused, wondering if I wanted to bring this up. "You wanting to get on here originally wasn't just about meeting Cody?"

Sierra giggled. "I was a fan of Total Drama long before I realized how much I liked Cody! I mean, yeah, I started on the first season and he was my favourite by like Episode Four, but you don't stop loving a show when your favourite contestant leaves! I was still all like OMG when Owen won, and it was great!"

I couldn't help smiling. I already liked Sierra. I mean, she'd been OK on the show, but I'd really only associated her with the stalking-Cody thing. I didn't remember how exuberant and bubbly she really was.

She'd started talking again. "Anyway, I was hoping you'd be on here, Danni. I was going to tell you how cool it was that you were in the final two last year. The season, was, like, _so_ suspenseful. You have _got_ to show me. how to turn five cartwheels in a row! The best I can do is one, and once I did one while holding a sandwich, but I'd love to be able to do more than that!"

I grinned again. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind for tomorrow. I'm glad we've got free days again. We've got an awesome line-up this year, I have to say. We'll just have to keep in mind that the Villains have a pretty good one, too." I shrugged. "Oh well, at least we're not stuck with Alejandro this time!"

Sierra nodded. "That was the worst last time I was on the show! Although I thought it was cute how Heather was totally crushing on him, I hated having to be around him all the time."

It was almost surreal. Here I was, talking about the other contestants with Sierra, and she didn't focus on Cody! Luck was definitely on my side this season.

Waiting for us at the beach was two prams, and Chris with a jet pack.

Well, if this was going to be how the season began, this was going to be weird. Weirder than toxic waste,, weirder than Izzy becoming a genius momentarily, weirder than Trent's OCD, and much, _much_ weirder than anything in Total Drama Island. Maybe not weird in the same way, but still crazy.

And at that moment, one thought filled my head: _Who cares if I win? I just hope I survive._

 **I wanted to get another chapter out but I'm too lazy to do the challenge. So next, I'll do the challenge and try to fill the rest of that chapter with character interaction. Danni only knows about half her team personally right now, although she does like Beth, Lindsay and Owen.**

 **A little bit about the way I write Sierra...I am unashamed to admit that Sierra is in my top fifteen as far as characters go. Before RR, she was in my top ten, but the Sisters, plus Ennui and Junior outranked her. Because of that, I write Sierra sympathetically. She's generally not as crazy as she was in canon, and I think the original All-Stars did her an injustice by making her more insane and less genre-savvy. Let's just say, Danni's interaction with her this chapter is an indication of the direction I intend to take with her. And let me tell you, later on, I've made a challenge (I made some up to eliminate the extra characters and take out double eliminations) that Sierra could really shine at, if she plays her cards right.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Time to start the challenge! Thanks for reviewing, Piecesxoxo, RebelToasters12, Nicky Haugh, Liz The Sweet Writer, Bloodylilcorpse, Pokemon FTW, yeezynight14, SuperKitty4789, That British Guy (well, maybe some characters need redemption and have you forgotten that she won two individual challenges plus beat Heather in badminton and made up all the lines for Admiral Lindsay Her Hotness?) and the guest reviewer.**

Our challenge was actually quite simple. The prams were from the Central Park challenge. Basically, we'd choose one person to "drive". The rest of us would cliff-dive, one at a time, and find a key embedded in the sand while eluding the sharks. Then, the diver would jump into their team's pram, and the driver would take them to the spa hotel, where they could try their key. If it didn't fit, they'd have to go back in the pram, and the next diver had to wait until they got back to dive. The team that found the right key and opened the spa hotel got to stay there for the next two nights. Then the battle would start all over again with the next challenge.

Our team was pretty agreeable with who should drive. Too agreeable.

"You could do it." Mike suggested to Zoey.

Zoey smiled back. "Well, maybe you should do it."

I deliberated. We'd never get anything done if they kept on like that, and I wasn't sure who had more stamina.

I replayed last year in my head. Who had been the more successful person? Who had shown the most stamina combined with speed.

Finally, I made my mind up. "I agree with Mike. I think Zoey should do it. All in favour?" I raised my hand. With it, most of the original season girls raised their hands.

The Villains seemed to have made their choice, too.

"Okay," Chris said, "Everyone but Lightning and Zoey, up the cliff you go!"

I offered to jump first for the Heroes. I mean, I really just wanted to get it over with, especially when a familiar mutant put his head out of the water and waved.

"Fang!" Scott, Mike and I said in one voice.

Gwen looked over the edge with us. "Who?"

While Chris finished giving us the rules, I gave Gwen a quick explanation. "Toxic wasteland, mutants, Fang is basically a shark with legs and arms. Oh, and he HATES Scott."

Evidently, even giving the shark tooth back hadn't changed too much between the two. Scott was still afraid enough of Fang to step as far behind the rest of the Villains as possible.

The first Villain to jump was Justin. I'd have to hope he still had the same effect on sharks he used to, then they'd stare at him and not even notice me.

Well, I reached the shore first, and jumped into the baby carriage with the key. "Let's go!" I exclaimed, and Zoey started pushing.

"This feels so weird." I commented. "You know, being in a pram with one of my friends pushing."

Zoey giggled. "It feels a little weird to me as well, but what does it matter? This challenge isn't actually that scary. I mean, yeah, about level for Total Drama, but we've faced worse than sharks before."

I nodded. "Yeah! Just have to hope-" I was cut off as Lightning ran past, wheeling the pram with Justin in it. I gave a sigh. "Why did this have to happen? I wish Lightning was a Hero, too."

Zoey looked a bit unsure. "Well, no offence, but...Lightning kind of _is_ more Villain than Hero. I guess you don't get to see it, because he's always been nice to you, but you didn't see the way he used to look at our team last season when we won, and I know he was mad at your team for losing."

I gave a sigh. "No, I see it. It's just he did so little that was really villainous that I could've believed that gave him an edge. Plus, I've almost forgotten what he was like on the show, as opposed to how he is when we hang out...although he does make me work out. As it is, it means one of our biggest threats is on the other team. Well, physical threats."

As it was, we got to the spa hotel just as the Villains were heading back. At least they didn't have the right key – then Zoey would've been on the chopping block for just being too slow. But I didn't have the right key, either.

"Sorry." I said. "We'll have to wait for the next person to dive."

At least our next diver was quick. Sierra took about ten seconds to reach the shore, a key clasped in hand. "I found one that looks like Cody!"

Meanwhile, Duncan had already gone with Lightning.

Things went on like this for a while. However, while I was waiting, I talked with Beth and Lindsay. I remembered that last time Beth had faced this challenge, she was too scared to jump. "Why don't you do it this time?" I suggested. "No one else has died yet. If you were brave enough to jump into a kiddie pool of worms, stand up to Heather, and get into a comet full of puke, you can do one tiny little cliff dive."

Beth nodded slowly. "Well...I really wanna prove myself. I didn't think I was going to be on this show at all."

"But you made it so far!" Lindsay protested. "You are a star, Beth! And we all know you can do it."

A determined look came over Beth's face – the same one I'd seen her have that one episode when she stood up to Heather, and the one she had when Leshawna taunted her during the badminton game – again, against Heather. "I'll do it." she said firmly.

And after our third jumper (Mike) had come back and had no luck, Beth closed her eyes, and stepped into thin air. And she actually managed to get to the pram pretty quickly – enough that the Villains didn't widen their lead, at least.

But we still didn't get the win. You see, Lightning had gone through six Villains, and Scott was refusing to jump. Duncan was trying to pull him off the rock he clung to, while Anne Maria (she'd jumped fifth) was standing there, giving him a sizzling death glare. "If I risked my looks jumping, you're gonna risk it too! Not that you have any looks to speak of." she added more quietly.

"You have to dive!" Duncan insisted. "It's you, or the robot, and I'm pretty sure the robot isn't water-proof."

"Yeah, but it's shark-proof!" Scott stammered, still refusing.

Wouldn't you know it, the robot fell off the cliff, anyway. There were a few seconds, before an explosion happened in the water. A figure flew up, and even from the distance, I could see a few key features.

Longish dark hair. Caramel skin. A heartmelting smirk.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Heather shrieked.

I couldn't help a giggle at the queen bee's reaction. But as I turned my attention back to the eighth Villainous Vulture (which was actually a pretty good description), I couldn't help agreeing with her.

He may have desperately needed a shave and a few darns on his over-a-year-old clothes, and he may have looked a lot better than he had last time I'd seen him, none of those things could stop me from recognizing the one and only Alejandro Burromuerto.

Why? WHY? Why did that guy have to be on this season? Yeah, yeah, I know, they brought back all the other finalists, but how many people actually wanted to see...OK, scratch that, at least a quarter of the cheer squad thought they were in love with him...but who actually wanted to have that guy on their team? Oh well, at least he wasn't on _my_ team. As long as I ignored him, I'd be fine.

But I couldn't ignore him and his achievements this time. Not only was Alejandro free from the robot, but he also had managed to find a key. He couldn't walk, though, so Lightning had to lift him into the baby carriage and carry him up the porch to the spa hotel door...but the key worked.

The Villains had won, and we had to vote someone off.

I discussed the voting with Zoey and Mike. "It's not really fair." I sighed. "I like our team. None of us deserve to go that quickly. And obviously the three of us aren't going to vote each other off yet. We should make a final three deal again. Then if that happens, all three of us will have had at least one chance at the million." I grinned at Zoey, communicating that even if she didn't win the semifinals, Mike or I would take her to the finale.

"So...who _should_ we vote off?" Mike asked. "How are we going to do this? No one screwed up today."

"I guess we could go by process of elimination?" Zoey suggested. "Like, who's been the strongest before?"

"Well, we can't boot Beth." I said firmly. "She refused to jump in the first season, but she did it today. And I somehow think having Lindsay along will make her braver. They're best friends, after all, and very protective of each other."

"I think we should keep Brick, too." Zoey spoke up. "He always tries his best, and I felt really bad when he left last season. He deserves to stay."

"That leaves Sierra and Owen." Mike surmised. "Who should we keep?"

There was a silence, as the three of us started sizing up the crazy fangirl against the big lovable lug. After some more discussion, we made our choice, and promised to stick to it.

After that, we moved our stuff into the cabins. This one was clearly the old Killer Bass cabin, and I wasn't sure who slept where. But Sierra knew. "That over there was Katie and Sadie's bunk," she pointed out, "And _that_ bunk was the one Bridgette and Courtney shared-"

"I call Bridgette's one!" I said instantly. "My big bro says I'm like the second-generation Bridgette, so makes sense, no?"

Sierra giggled. "Okay, if you're taking that one, I'll take the top bunk."

While I'd been planning to share with Zoey, I didn't feel like I could say no, even though Beth and Lindsay were sharing and Zoey would be left on her own in Eva's old bunk. Once I found out the spa hotel housed two bedrooms for three and one for two, I resolved to ask Zoey to share one of the rooms with me (if it was a three-bedroom one, we'd just have to ask Sierra too). And it wasn't like we weren't sharing the cabin, right?

Elimination was set to be before dinner. The seven (once eight) of us would have to go to the mess hall and eat Chef's slop, while the Villains got to eat gourmet at the hotel. But meanwhile, before elimination, I hung around outside the hotel, hoping that one of the more sympathetic Villains, or in the best scenario, Gwen, would come out so that they would get Lightning for me. I wanted to talk to him.

Luckily, I saw a tall, broad figure step out of the hotel. He wasn't looking at me, though. He was still watching himself in a mirror.

"Justin!" I called out.

The model looked up and saw me, blinking in confusion. "Um, aren't you on the other team?"

"Yeah, but I'm not in your hotel, am I?" I pointed out. "Look, could you do me a favour? I assume Lightning's still inside. Can you bring him out here. Tell him Danni misses him."

Justin gave a sigh. "I'll tell someone else to do it, okay?"

"Ask Gwen." I suggested.

It took ten minutes, but eventually, Lightning raced out of the doors and pulled me into a hug. I smiled up at him and whispered "Shall we talk somewhere quieter? I don't want all our teammates watching us. Maybe the forest?"

So that's what we did. We didn't talk that much, just exchanged little stories about our teammates, mourned not being on the same team, and laughed over little things.

"Don't forget, though," Lightning warned me, "I'm not gonna go easy. You Heroes are going sha-down!"

I laughed at him. "Heroes rule! We're so gonna cream you Villains next challenge. But whatever. We can keep our relationship out of the game. We can hang out between challenges. We should make this our meeting place. Every evening, before dinner on rest days, and before elimination on challenge days."

"Sha-totally!" agreed Lightning. "I'm not missing a chance to see you every day! You better remember!"

I shrugged. "If I don't, come find me in wherever I'm rooming that day. But I will. Today, I was just hanging around the spa hotel, waiting for someone to come out so I could ask them to tell you I was outside." I paused, and asked "How's Alejandro doing? Can he still not walk?"

Lightning shrugged. "Dunno. He hasn't tried. He hasn't talked to anyone except bossy girl. You know the one?"

"Heather?" I guessed.

"Yeah. That's the hot one who tried to bean me last year, right?" When I gave him a stern look, he laughed. "Don't worry. I mean, yeah, she's hot, but she's not cute like you. My type's cute, and that's you."  
That comment made me smile, and I said "Okay, so yeah, that's Heather. Anyway, I'm betting Chris is going to call my team to elimination soon, so we'll have to talk later. Bye for now!"

Lightning pulled me back before I could go. "Wait!" He wanted to get in a kiss before I got back to my team, and I was only too happy to comply.

Chris called us to elimination about ten minutes after I got back to my team. Actually, the Villains had to come too. They'd sit in a little peanut gallery while us Heroes went to the confessional one by one, and crossed a photo of the person we wanted out.

Oh, and one more thing. As Chris said "I need one person from the winning team to volunteer for a special reward."

I knew the volunteer before I even heard his voice. "Ha! Sha-Lightning!"

Yeah, Lightning was smarter than he was last year, but not enough to accidentally accept spending the night in exile on Boney Island. Then again, he could look for a hidden invincibility statue there, so maybe it was a reward.

" _Now_ he tells us." Scott muttered.

We went alphabetically, so I went third, after Brick and before Lindsay. I crossed the smiling face of the person, feeling guilty, but knowing there was nothing else I could do.

Chris, as per usual, threw us our marshmallows. "Zoey. Beth. Mike. Lindsay. Danni, and Brick." Only Owen and Sierra were left. "I'll be honest. I don't know why either of you are on the chopping block. Maybe people are just voting randomly." Chris grinned. "Great tension, having all of you squirm over voting out a friend. I wouldn't expect any less of Heroes! And the loser is..."

Both of our teammates looked nervous. Owen was a hair away from gnawing at his nails. Sierra looked like she was about to cry. Then Chris spoke again.

"Owen!" Then he frowned. "Sorry, dude. I wish I'd voted. Sort of."

We all had to watch the lovable goof be flushed, and yeah, I do mean flushed. The way an All-Star left was to be flushed down a giant toilet.

But I had to ask. "Um, Chris," I said, "It's not actually a real toilet, right? I mean, it's not used and it doesn't go into the sewers, right?"

Chris shrugged. "You are way too paranoid, Danni! Here's the deal – the pipes go somewhere else every time I flush. An intern will pick up the flushed contestant, and no, no one uses it. We have to get a little creative with the way home each season!"

I sighed and accepted that. Still, I was going to miss Owen. I'd wanted him to stay, but ultimately, he was just one of the weakest members of our team.

 **I know there are lots of people who absolutely adore Owen. There's also those who think he's overused. He gets a lot of canon screentime, so if he's your favourite, sorry, but he's not mine and this story wasn't for him. I'm here to give characters that deserved more time or a better sendoff what they deserved, and Owen's sendoff took place after this season, in the Ridonculous Race. So one early elimination is fair enough.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Right. The statue puzzle episode! I'm looking forward to this. Thanks for reviewing, SuperKitty4789, yeezynight14, Nicky Haugh, Pokemon FTW, Bloodylilcorpse, Piecesxoxo, Liz the Sweet Writer and OmniPlanckInstant.**

 **ThatBritishGuy: If you are going to use the review section to character bash and insult without any reasoning for your insistence (I listed deserved victories and you ignored it), I will keep deleting your reviews. I would have said this in a PM if you reviewed under a username, but as it is, I can't.**

The free day was pretty good. I was glad that I didn't need to get to know any new names, and the other Heroes were all really nice.

The Villains mostly stayed in the spa hotel. We didn't see much of any of them. Lightning was back for the day, but he had to go back to Boney Island before dinnertime, so we barely got a chance to talk properly before Chef dragged him off.

I spent most of the day just hanging out with the others. I made a special effort to get to know the old cast. Since Owen was gone, that just left the three girls. I was already getting to know Sierra really well, and Beth and Lindsay, while hanging out together, were both friendly and all five of us Hero girls were soon good friends. We even treated the night like a sleepover. Sierra had brought snacks with her luggage ("I remember Chef's inflight meals," she explained, "And even that weird Chinese food in that one challenge was better!" Yeah, she had won that challenge) and so we stayed up late, braiding each other's hair and scoffing Doritos.

"I just wish we had drinks too." I said wistfully. "It would be so cool if we could mix some cocktails."

Zoey blinked at me. "Danni, are you saying you actually _drink_ cocktails? Like, regularly at home? Aren't you still seventeen?"

I shrugged. "It's only eight months until I turn eighteen. What, don't you drink at all?"

"I don't really like alcohol." Zoey admitted. "So I don't."

"We should _so_ take you out somewhere after the show's over." Lindsay suggested. "Trust me, one sip of vodka and you'll never dread drinking again!"

"Do you go out much, Lindsay?" I asked, interested.

"Are you kidding?" Lindsay giggled. "I go out all the time! I love the clubs."

"I'd go out almost every night if I had more friends." Sierra spoke up. "I still try to meet up with Cody every so often, but we never actually, you know, go out together, even as friends. And most of my other friends are just pen pals."

I'd found out that Sierra didn't actually live that far away from me, so what I said next was totally fine. "Why don't we have a girls' night sometime after the season? In fact, all five of us should go out together. We only have about five weeks here – less than five, even. We definitely have enough time!"

Still, life in the cabins wasn't all fun and games. For the next two days, Chef woke us by throwing gruel into the cabins to eat. Only Sierra ate much of it at all. "It makes me feel like I'm on the first season!" she explained when I asked. "It doesn't matter that it's disgusting – it's a nostalgia thing."

And then, the second challenge day arrived. Chris called us around eight-thirty, maybe nine. The sun was already pretty high. " _Attention, campers!"_ the loudspeaker shrilled. " _It's challenge time! Get your hineys down to the beach, pronto!"_

I literally hadn't seen any of the Villains since the first day apart from Lightning, so I surveyed them as we reached the platforms that had been set up – one for us, one for them. I caught Anne Maria's eye as I looked over at them. She gave me a slight smile – we'd been friends, after all – but she also gave a thumbs down, and I knew what she meant. I answered by drawing a finger across my throat, still smiling sweetly.

Lightning was only brought back from his last night of exile after everyone else was assembled. As for the other villains – well, Alejandro somehow managed to get up to the platform while walking on his hands – yes, that was what he was doing. It seemed to be as natural to him as regular walking – apparently, though, he'd probably never walk regularly again. Maybe his legs would wake up at some point, maybe they were paralyzed forever, but for now, they weren't working.

Duncan winked and made a finger pistol as Gwen climbed up to their platform, but she didn't seem to notice it.

"Ooh, somebody's invisible!" Chris chuckled. "Harsh. TV couples – is it ever a good idea?"

"I don't think it's the TV show!" I called up. "I think it's a mistake of team placings!"

"What are you talking about?" Sierra whispered to me.

"Look, I know you were mad at Gwen last season, but you have to admit that Gwuncan aside, she's not a villain." I whispered back. "She's caught up in her own misery – that's why she didn't notice Duncan just then."

Anyway, it was a pretty easy challenge. Well, sort of. Back in Season 3, the teams had to find pieces of a statue and assemble it. This time, we had to dig for seven parts of a statue in our half of the beach, and put it on our platform. The pieces would make up an icon of one of the places visited that season, like the Eiffel Tower for Paris, or a kangaroo for Hanging Rock.

It was only after a few minutes that Chris told us about the booby traps in the sand and the crab moats around our platforms (the Villains were able to prod theirs with a spade, but we didn't get ones because we lost the last challenge).

Chris finally blew the air horn to start, and we got into a huddle. "We should divide our area into seven different segments, and each dig in one." Zoey suggested, taking charge.

"I agree." I said. "Someone needs to sacrifice themselves to get the moat open, though, before we start on that. Who's going to do it?"

I glanced around, looking for the most self-sacrificing member of our team. But it was clear who had the job. "Oh, fine, I'll do it." I sighed. "You six stake out a section for me once I get out, okay?"

"Go team!" Zoey said, putting her hand into the middle of our huddle.  
"Go team!" the rest of us echoed.

And that was it. The challenge began, and it was not a fun one. Not only did I spend most of it with red patches where the crabs had attacked me all over my legs and arms, but the sand was getting all over me. At least the Villains didn't get sandy hands.

And as it was, I could hear Anne Maria complaining about the sand STILL getting up her nails on the other side. After she'd done it more than twice, I heard Heather offering to find someone in the spa hotel to take her nails out completely.

I felt like Miss Totally Unfortunate during the whole challenge, sacrificing myself so no one else had to. Maybe it was karma. Last season, it was always Brick who got the short end of the stick. As it was, he was hard at work almost immediately, and didn't hit any booby traps for the whole challenge. I hit the very first one, and got covered in a bunch of laundry. There was one good piece of luck about it, though.

Among the laundry was a brown fedora. "Hey, Mike!" I called. "Isn't Manitoba Smith good at finding stuff?"

"Yeah, why?" Mike called back.

"I found a fedora!" I explained. "Would you mind letting him take control for some of the challenge?"

Mike shrugged. "Well, I wanna win, and we haven't found any pieces yet, so...all right."

And sure enough, once Mike's Australian alter got control, he immediately dug up our first piece and put it on the platform. Then he caught sight of Zoey. "Well, looks like the _real_ treasure is right here beside me," he grinned, "Wink wink."

The Villains weren't having as much luck as us. Heather was trying to organize them, which was all right, but none of them really wanted to listen to her. They found their pieces fairly easily, though. I was starting to think Chris had gone easier on them.

By the time an hour had gone by, both of the teams had only found one piece, and Chris was losing patience. Luckily, we found far more after that.

There was one thing of importance that happened. Scott tried to sabotage us by finding one of our pieces, and hiding it in the Villains' section, but Manitoba caught him at it.

I only saw it because he accidentally activated a trapdoor, which held...

"Bees!" Scott screamed. "BEES!" he turned to run, hitting Manitoba in the head with his shovel in the process.

That was the thing. When he came back to life, he was Mike again, and for whatever reason, he couldn't trigger Manitoba.

But I didn't worry about it. We didn't need him – we got the sixth piece soon after that incident, and Zoey suggested Beth, Lindsay and I start working on the puzzle while everyone else continued digging.

"So...let's remember...where did you go on the tour, anyway?" I said, trying to remember. "Egypt...well, this is definitely not a pyramid or a sarcophagus, so it's probably not an Egyptian icon."

"What's a sarcopha-thingy?" Lindsay asked.

I sighed. "Sorry, Linds. I meant, like, a mummy case. You know, those really pretty cases that the ancient Egyptians used as kind of mummy coffins."

Beth had begun fitting pieces together. "I've found the base of the statue." she told us. "But I'm not sure what it is."

I picked up another piece and tried to fit it. "It's a body shape, I think." I mused. "Like a woman's...I know!" I turned to Lindsay. "You went to New York, right?"

I wasn't sure if she'd remember, but she nodded enthusiastically. Then she sighed. "Chris wouldn't let me go shopping, though! So unfair!"

I just smiled, though. "You'll get to go shopping in NYC sometime, probably. But I think we might have the Statue of Liberty to build."

Beth looked at the pieces she'd already fit. "That's it!" Her eyes lit up. "Let's get this done quick, then we can help find the last piece."

The three of us got it done quickly. I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out to everyone "It's the Statue of Liberty! We're looking for a torch!"

It was a close call, but just as the Villains found the clock face of Big Ben (London clock), the torch was sitting on the end of Lady Liberty's outstretched hand.

We all started cheering. "Spa hotel! Spa hotel!" most of the veteran cast girls chanted.

Chris cleared his throat. "I do require a Hamster to volunteer for exile duty."

"I feel it should be my duty to take the first exile," Brick offered, "So-" He was taken off by Chef within the next ten minutes.

I met Lightning before elimination as usual. The Villains had already had to move their bags into the cabins, while we Heroes went to move ours into the hotel (I had already claimed one of the two-person bedrooms for Zoey and I).

"So have you discussed with the others who to vote off?" I asked.

"No." Lightning shrugged. "Heather wants Anne Maria to go. I want one of the pretty boys out."

"Well, if you vote for one of them, do you want the weak one or the strong one?" I asked. "Justin's pretty lazy, if I remember right. Alejandro, though, he always does his best and said best is usually top-notch."

"Uh-huh." Lightning nodded. "Which one's which, again?"

I paused, trying to think of a way to differenciate them. Finally, I remembered the easiest thing. "Alejandro's the one who can't walk properly right now." I reminded him. "And they have different coloured eyes – Alejandro has green, Justin has blue." When I'd said Justin had a weird face, I'd completely forgotten the most reedeeming part of his face – whether he was scowling or sullen, his eyes still retained perfection. Why, why, why did those eyes have to be given to someone so shallow?

Lightning's vote didn't really matter, anyway. Not in the grand scheme of things. Just before Chris announced the votes, though, I heard something just beside me. Something from one of my teammates. Something dark and demonic, something that stirred a faint memory from last year.

" _One by one, they will all fall."_

I turned to look, just as Zoey said "Huh? Did you say something, Mike?"

Mike took a sharp intake of breath, and said innocently "No, just sitting here."

I shrugged. Maybe it was nothing. Mike's personalities weren't gone – and maybe there were a few I didn't know of yet. Mike's other personalities seemed all right. How problematic could another one be?

Justin was in the final two, but so was Anne Maria. "Anne Maria, you're on the chopping block for not working hard and complaining about ruining your looks." Chris said. "And Justin, you're on the chopping block for...actually, the same thing. And tonight's loser is..."

There was a pause. I prayed for Justin to go. Anne Maria may not have been the nicest person alive, but she was my friend, and I wanted to actually talk to her while she was here.

The pause seemed to go on forever. Then Chris finally said it.

"...Anne Maria!"

I didn't stay to watch my friend get flushed. I didn't really want to see her go, and as the winning team, we were allowed to leave after the votes were announced.

I was just glad we had a free day and another night in the spa hotel. We were going to have so much fun!

 **Yes, Pokemon FTW, you were correct. I planned Anne Maria to leave long before writing this – I have every elimination already planned out, but still, nice prediction!**

 **Sorry for the long wait. I can't garuantee when the next one will be out, but as university is over for another year, I may have more time. However, there is a chance I'll be working for the next three weeks, so I'll see what happens. It might be then, or if not, it'll be February.**

 **Oh, and send in your predictions for the rest of the season!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Leeches. Ew. To be fair, I know for a fact that leeches had been used to do blood transfusions at one point, but they still look gross. And using them as paintballs...well...**

 **Thanks for reviewing, Liz The Sweet Writer, yeezynight14, Nicky Haugh, Pokemon FTW, Bloodylilcorpse, RebelToasters12, Darkness, TheProtecterOfHim and OmniPlanckInstant.**

 **ThatBritishGuy can do what he wants, but his reviews won't show up if he keeps sending messages that aren't reviews...or offensive reviews that are insulting it without explaining what's wrong with it.**

The free day was pretty good fun. The food was amazing, the beds were Comfort Central, and everyone had a great time. It wasn't great to have Brick in exile, but he did get to come back for lunch, at least, before he had to go back to Boney Island. Still, he seemed all right, actually. He was still pretty alert and seemed to be in a fairly even mood – not that I'd ever seen him be harsh with anyone who didn't deserve it (yeah, looking at you, Jo).

I even sneaked some food out to Lightning – meat, of course. He still had a huge thing for protein, and judging by the last few days, Chef's food didn't have any.

It was the start of the next challenge day that something strange happened. I woke up to find my watch, which was lying on my bedside table, with the glass clock face smashed. I mean, completely in fragments. It was in the exact same position I'd left it last night, and I trusted Sierra and Zoey. They wouldn't have touched my watch. But then, who would have? Did someone come into our room last night?

Well, I knew Lindsay and Beth were in the hotel, but they would never do anything like that, not on purpose. And I knew for a fact that Mike wouldn't, either. And even though his other personalities took over when he was asleep some of the time, I knew he'd never actually left his room at the time.

I wondered if one of the Villains had sneaked in. Surely we would've heard them break in! We'd locked the spa hotel doors for the night. But if not a Villain, and not a Hero, who would? Chef wouldn't be bothered, the butlers wouldn't do it, and I didn't think Chris would settle for one petty act of vandalism when he could've ripped up Zoey's flower or confiscated Sierra's sneaked-in Smartphone.

I didn't want to face it, but I could tell one explanation that I'd dismissed was the most plausible one. One of the other Heroes had done it. And I knew the only one that could and would – if the circumstances I guessed were correct.

But I decided to leave that until after the challenge. Once we'd won, I could ask, and even say what I guessed had happened.

At breakfast that morning, we were exclaiming again over the breakfast. "I still can't get over it!" Beth exclaimed. "After two seasons of Chef's food, I almost forgot what real food tasted like. And now we've got this...it's just _so_ perfect!"

That's when I remembered that Brick was still in exile. He wouldn't be back until the challenge began, and the least our team could do was smuggle breakfast to him. I caught the eye of most of my teammates, and then wrapped some bacon up in a napkin before just about managing to fit it into my shorts pocket.

One by one, the rest of the team started putting food into their pockets, as well. Lindsay looked confused, at first, then Beth nudged her and whispered something and she started pouring orange juice into the tiny jam jars before putting the lids back on, hiding most of them in her cleavage. Somehow, it fit, disappearing in the gap between her H-cup twins (or maybe I. Did cup sizes even go that high?).

I was sitting next to Sierra. She had seen Lindsay's hiding place for the juice, too, and she started writing something on her SmartPhone. Then she showed me what she'd written: _That's one way to stuff a bra!_

If we'd been alone, I would've probably fallen out of my seat laughing. As it was, I kept my giggles back and kept it to a smile. Sierra grinned back before going back to her breakfast.

Zoey was on the other side of me. She'd been talking to Mike, but at that moment, she whispered to me "What was that about?"

"Just about where Lindsay chose to stow the orange juice for Brick." I whispered back. "Sierra just said something really funny about it, but we didn't want to hurt Lindsay's feelings, so we tried to be quiet."

That was when Chris called us out. It didn't take us long to get there.

"At ease, soldiers!" Chris called out as we arrived. "Let's welcome back exiled Hamster, Brick!"

He was dropped by Chef and his helicopter from an unecessary height, and we all ran to him. Well, us Heroes did anyway.

"How was exile?" Zoey asked sympathetically.

There were dark circles under Brick's eyes, and he looked a bit worse for wear, with some of his khakis slightly torn, but he managed to smile bravely. "Well, all I can say is learning survival skills at cadet camp really paid off." he said.

As he spoke, we all held out our stolen breakfast items. I grinned at him. "We need every soldier at full strength, after all." I grinned. "We know you'd do the same for us."

I wasn't just being nice, by the way. Now that I thought about it, Brick's strict cadet code would include ensuring everyone was at maximum strength and that no one got treated any less than anyone else. His sacrifice was worth more than one breakfast.

Our challenge was sort of like the paintball one in the first season – you know, deer and hunters with paintball? Chris explained that there were two crates in the heart of the forest – one with state-of-the-art paintball guns, and one with low-tech stuff. Probably slingshots. Crates were first come, first serve, Whichever team had all their members shot first would go to elimination.

"Paintball again?" Duncan exclaimed, deadpan. "Ooh, original. What a twist."

"Oh yeah, that." Chris' voice was sly. "A condition of my parole was that I can't use or be around hard projectiles like paintball. So instead...you'll be using leeches!"

I managed to take a trip to the confessional that night to complain about the leeches. I had to wait, though, because Heather was already in there, saying something very similar to what I wanted to say – yeah, look, I couldn't help overhearing. " _I thought, like, leeches? Chris is really making us earn the million this year. Jerk."_

When I got my turn, I looked straight at the camera and said "Look, I know Chris is a psycho. But making us use the vampire cousins of anchovies is over the line. None of us need to lose that much blood. It's a good thing none of us are too bad a shot...at least, apart from Lindsay, or Beth. I don't know, maybe Beth would've gotten Sadie that first season if Heather hadn't called out at the wrong moment." (Oh yeah, what I said...don't leeches sort of look like anchovies? Ew).

There was one silver lining. Since we were the winners last challenge, we got a minute's headstart to the heart of the forest. A leech was shot (and Scott suffered for it), and we began to run.

"Does anyone know where the heart of the forest _is,_ exactly?" Sierra wondered.

"I'll go get a better look." Zoey offered. And that was the moment I realized exactly how far she'd come in her gymnastic skills. She had definitely been practising in the year since we did Revenge. I mean, she was at the top of a fifty-metre tree in about ten seconds.

She pointed. "Over there!" We began running, quickly, quickly...

We headed for the bigger crate, but just as we ran, Lightning suddenly blocked our path, and kept his hands on the crate. "Sorry, losers." he taunted. "This crate is for my team."

"We're not gonna let you take it." I said back. "You're the only one here. The seven of us can take you down easy!"  
But at that moment, the other six jumped into view, and none of them were letting us get the crate.

"Whoa, where did they all come from?" Mike wondered out loud.

We got stuck with the slingshots and buckets of leeches, while the villains got machine paintball guns and even a cannon, all fully stocked. They didn't even have to touch the creepy things.

We hightailed it to the woods, ready for battle.

"Okay, we need to figure out a game plan." I said to the others. "Who knows what they're doing?"

Brick was the first to speak up. "Ma'am, I request that I be on the frontlines for this challenge. I haven't used a slingshot before, but I have good aim."

I smiled. "Okay, Brick. That's cool with me. Anything else?"

"Well, we have to find the Villains before they find us." Zoey said decidedly.

"Stealthy forest manuevers?" Mike said, a smile appearing. "This sounds like a job for Svetlana!" He took a breath.

"Ooh, goodie!" Sierra squealed. "She's my favourite!"

I'd heard a bit about Svetlana over the year since Revenge, mostly from Zoey, since she saw Mike the most. Apparently Svetlana wasn't just Olympic-obsessed – she was also the most friendly and softest-hearted of all of Mike's alternate personalities, and Zoey, while she would prefer to spend time with Mike, found her good company at times. Sierra was definitely not wrong to like her.

But Mike was still normal. His eyes didn't bulge, he didn't gasp, and he wasn't talking. "Who are we seeing?" I ventured. "Svetlana?"

Mike finally opened his eyes. He looked defeated. "Nah, still me."

I shrugged, trying to make out it was nothing. "That's okay." I shrugged. "You're good at running, anyway, and that's going to be a major thing once the Villains see us shooting."

"I can't wait to get Heather!" Lindsay squealed. "I've been waiting to do that since...um...like, for a _really_ long time."

"Attack isn't really my thing," Beth admitted, "But I can make an exception for the other team, and besides..." a smirk formed on her face. "I'm betting that if I don't get caught, that'll mean we go to elimination!"

We had the lead for the whole game, actually.

Sierra tried to take their cannon, but Duncan spotted her trying to sneak off with it and shot her. Beth tried to buy her some time by shooting Heather and Justin, so even though Sierra was out, the Villains were distracted enough for her to pass it to Mike. After that, we all split off in different directions.

The Villains got their first point out of luck. I was with Lindsay when we found Gwen, and she attemped to shoot, getting herself. Me? I snatched up a leech and aimed.

"Agh!" Gwen exclaimed as I hit the target.

"Sorry, Gwen!" I called, making a run for it.

It wasn't the worst point I received. No, my next triumph was also my downfall.

I think I saw Lightning before he saw me. At least, it gave me enough time to pull out a leech and aim. But that was still enough time for him to fire at me.

My leech landed on a space just below Lightning's neck. His landed on my cheek. But he still grinned at me. "Sorry, cutie. I'll heal that place when we talk tonight – after we win, that is!" Then he ran for it.

"You better dislodge your leech before you kiss where mine was!" I called back, plucking the leech off. Chris had already announced that we were both out.

As it turned out, Mike later on got Alejandro and Scott with the cannon. By the time Duncan was the only Villain left (as I found out later), we still had quite a few people left in. Zoey told me later on that she and Beth had teamed up, and Beth distracted Duncan by sacrificing herself so Zoey could shoot him.

Once again, we had won, and the Villains were going to Boney Island.

But before elimination, and before I could go and talk with Lightning, I spoke to Mike as we walked back to the spa hotel.

"Hey, can we talk for a moment?" I asked. "Privately? Just for a minute?" I caught a flash of nervousness on Mike's face as I asked. But he nodded, and while the rest of the team went into the hotel, we sat down on the steps in front.

"Thing is," I said, "I don't want to sound accusing, but this morning, I found my watch face had been smashed. First of all, no, I don't think you did it. But I'm pretty sure none of the Villains broke in, and I know none of the girls would have done it. It's just...I don't trust your personalities completely. Do any of them...you know...dislike me?"

Mike's expression had become more and more anxious as I spoke. After I asked that question, he replied. "Well...I don't think so. But I can't seem to find my alternate personalities at the moment. I keep trying to access them, but ever since the beach challenge, I can't find them. But, Danni, there's something else you should know. Last night, I had this weird dream that I was in your bedroom, holding your watch and it was broken. At least, I thought it was a dream! But if your watch was really broken..." he trailed off.

I paused, thinking. "Do you have more than four personalities? Or did you ever have any others?" I asked. "I don't know that much about DID, but I know most people have personalities that are...well...dangerous. And none of those four are. Could it be another personality?"

As I spoke, there were several expressions crossing Mike's face. Confusion, worry, realization, fear...I just had to question it.

"Have I said something?"

Mike jumped as I spoke again, and then looked at me. "I have a theory." he said slowly. "But I'm not completely sure. I need to think about it."

(I'm going to skip my conversation with Lightning. It was nothing in particular).

That's why I wasn't too surprised when Mike volunteered for exile that night. Whatever he'd figured out was probably to do with it.

As for who was eliminated? Justin. No surprises there. I noticed Alejandro looking particularly pleased with himself. And as for Justin himself...he looked sort of relieved. I guessed his laziness and vanity had caught up with him.

As I walked back to the spa hotel, I felt a little better, though still confused. What was Mike's theory? Would he tell me at some point?

 **You probably know what happened with Danni's watch. My intention with this chapter was to introduce this part of the story into the show, but as you might be able to tell, it won't be taking over the whole season.**


	6. Chapter 6

**All right! Not a great episode, but hey, that's OK. Thanks for reviewing, yeezynight14, Nicky Haugh, Pokemon FTW, OmniPlanckInstant, SuperKitty4789, Piecesxoxo and Bloodylilcorpse.**

 **Oh yeah, and when Danni says "Pardon my French", she means "degage", which is French for "piss off".**

During the free day, and the time Mike was back, he must have told Zoey what happened, because she approached me in the afternoon and asked me about it. There wasn't much to say, though.

All I could say was "I think one of Mike's personalities smashed my watch face. But judging everything, I think it's one who hasn't shown up before." That's when a memory came back to me. "Wait! Do you remember the campfire ceremony, the one after the statue building challenge? You thought Mike said something, but he hadn't."

Zoey gave a gasp. "I should've guessed! Of course Mike wouldn't remember saying anything if one of his personalities had taken hold for a second. Did you hear what he said, and what voice he said it in?"

I paused, trying to remember what he'd said. "I can't remember exactly. It was something about everyone falling, one by one. Like we're all targets. I guess the personality is just as desperate to win as the big villains. All I remember about the voice is that it was really deep. Sort of demonic, even."

Zoey frowned, nervousness crossing her face. "That's worrying. You think it's another personality, and it sounds like that to me too. Mike wouldn't tell me what he thought was going on. All he said was that he needed to figure things out for himself, and he'd tell me once he was sure."

I nodded. "Yeah, I think Mike knows something about this personality, if it is another personality. I wonder why he doesn't want to say anything? Does that mean..." I paused. "That this personality is dangerous? I read online that most people with Mike's condition has a personality that acts as an anger outlet. I know Chester is an outlet for frustration, but most of his other personalites seem pretty upbeat."

That evening, when I talked to Lightning, we swapped stories about our teams. I kept quiet about Mike, but I had a decade's worth of gossip from Sierra, as well as my own team stuff, so I had plenty to talk about. I confided that for one thing, Lindsay had told me that Brick reminded her of Tyler, her boyfriend, "Only not as cute and more bossy". Made sense – Brick had Tyler's nice-guy tendencies and couldn't help having a certain amount of goofiness. There were a few other things, too, but ultimately, what Lightning told me about the Villains was a lot more interesting. We were sitting together on a log, and I leaned into his hold as I listened.

Apparently, life was not harmonious among them. Heather had gone into major bossy mode, and so far, none of the stronger personalities had told her to shut up. Gwen went around looking not only pale, but drawn, too, talking to barely anyone.

"She does talk to Duncan, sometimes," Lightning admitted, "But you can tell he has to make an effort – and even he can't get her to smile for more than a second!"

Duncan was pretty much OK by himself. He was always one of the more easygoing members of the cast outside of challenges, so apparently he hadn't managed to annoy anyone else. Scott had mentioned throwing a challenge once, but he hadn't actually done anything to oust anyone so far.

That left Alejandro, who apparently wasn't trying to lead the team this time around. "So what _is_ he doing?" I asked.

Lightning shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe nothin'."

I narrowed my eyes. "If World Tour taught me nothing else, it did let me know that if that's true, Alejandro's either planning something, or he's really doing a lot but is able to keep it hidden. I'm not surprised he's letting Heather get away with being bossy, though. I wish they'd just start dating already. I mean, Scott told me I'd lose focus once I started dating you, but have I?"

"I wouldn't have dated you if you had!" Lightning laughed, pulling me into a kiss. "You better be last Hero standing this time!"

"Not if you're last Villain standing." I countered. "You'd hate me forever if I outranked you again!"

"Can't hate the cutie of the cosmos." Lightning laughed again.

I pecked him on the lips. "Very poetic. I didn't even know you knew the word cosmos!"

"I had a good tutor." This time, when Lightning kissed me, I didn't have a chance to reply before he kissed me again, and we would've been making out properly if not for-

"Villains, head to the mess hall!" It was dinnertime, and Chris had decided to announce it through the loudspeaker. "And Lightning, you might want to make sure your teammates don't catch you frenching the enemy."

I gave a sigh and stood up. "Pardon my French, but Chris can go degage because I'm still your girlfriend." I blew Lightning one more kiss, and then went back to the spa hotel.

The next day started out rainy and grey. I only went out once – I was going stir-crazy that morning, and so I went to the confessional just for something to do, even though I got soaked (look, it didn't rain at all last summer – I didn't think to bring an umbrella). Then, I vented. "This season is weird, but things are actually going...well, mostly okay. I'm worried about what's going on with Mike. I hope his reaction means he knows what's going on, because then he might know how to fix it. Or it might give us some ideas on how to fix it...I don't know. But...well, at least the Villains haven't done too much. Apart from Scott hiding that puzzle piece of ours on the wrong side, there's been nothing else." I'd actually asked Sierra if it was normal for the Villainous Vultures she'd met to do nothing.

She'd paused as she thought, then said "Heather is more of an opportunist. If she doesn't see a way to make us lose, she'll play fair. Alejandro usually sought ways to mess with everyone. I think he's either trying to mend his ways, or, more likely, he's too into Heather to think about that." At that moment, she'd whispered to me "I totally wasn't the only one unsurprised when Alejandro said he was in love with her at the finale!"

"I know!" I'd said. "Didn't you say that by the final four, the show felt like a double date?"

Sierra giggled. "I totally forgot about that! After a while, though – it kind of felt like Cody and I were playing wingman – and wing _woman –_ to the other two, since Cody just wanted to be friends at the time."

Anyway, back to the present. I'd finished my confessional, so I went back to the hotel for a while. I even went to the masseuse room and got a great massage from one of the interns.

But once the weather cleared up, it was time to leave and start the next challenge. It became sunny before the morning was out. Mike returned, looking reasonably unhurt from his time on Boney Island, but he looked pretty tired, too.

"How did exile go?" I asked in a whisper. "Did you figure out whatever it was?"

"I think so. Tell you later, okay?" Mike whispered back. He directed the last sentence at Zoey, too, just so she wasn't left out of the loop.

As it turned out, today was eating challenge day. The poor Villains didn't even get proper cooked gruel, because Chef was busy making two giant stacks of pancakes for everyone. Basically, one member of each team would eat as much pancake as they could in one minute. Then, they'd run an obstacle course. "It's a callback to the Mad Skills course from last season." Chris said. "The toughest parts, anyway."

Gulp. I could take the obstacle course easy, but not after stuffing pancake in my mouth for a full minute. I'd barf for sure.

There was no Grand Slam for this particular course. It had pretty much the fifth, third and finally first obstacle. I momentarily wondered how Mike would do – last time, Svetlana had done the fifth obstacle for him.

"That won't be so hard." Scott scoffed.

"Really?" Chris scowled. "Huh. I wasn't gonna add this, but since Scott's not impressed..." He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and called "Bring it in!"

And that's when we discovered the new obstacle. Chris called it the Salad Spinner, but it was really just a device that spun the contestants majorly fast.

The winning team was the one that finished their pancakes and one last run of the obstacle course first.

Oh, and one more thing. Anyone who puked got taken out of the challenge. They wouldn't be allowed to eat again. So, let's say you've finished the obstacle course, then you puke. Meaning? You've just wasted a lot of time that the person going next could've taken eating. I hoped with all my heart I wouldn't do that.

I didn't. Really! Sierra started for us, and Alejandro began for the Villains. Things went OK. Sierra looked for a moment like she was about to puke when she found the first booby trap – yeah, Chris had forgotten to mention them. For Sierra, it was fish eyes, and she nearly ate them all, mistaking them for blueberries.

Alejandro got worse. He found a couple of rats in the Villains' stack.

Both Alejandro and Sierra were evenly matched, sort of. Sierra was very athletic, but Alejandro was at a disadvantage due to having a paralyzed lower body. Well, he should have – but he seemed to do fine. They finished at almost the same time, leaving Scott and Lindsay to eat next. Thing was, Lindsay was super slow. Scott had apparently eaten too much gruel earlier, but he still managed to eat more than Lindsay – and finish the obstacle course while she was still halfway through the rolling pins.

I felt duty-bound to volunteer once Lindsay had finished the spinner, and ran up, level with Gwen, who was stuffing pancake into her mouth like her life depended on it. Well, yeah, I got the idea why, but her pale complexion was almost green by the time she got to the obstacle course.

I wasn't much better, trying to eat past the mousetrap that had been a nightmare to get off my lips (and now they were probably swollen). And as if that wasn't enough, Gwen puked all over the rolling pins, and that prompted me. We both ended up on the benches.

Well, at least I didn't waste time doing the obstacle course.

I remembered Lightning saying that Gwen had been quiet and withdrawn all season, so I smiled at her and spoke up. "Hi."

Gwen looked up, muttered "hi" and looked back down.

"What's wrong?" I asked straight out. "I mean, yeah, I know, the obstacle course was killer and my throat feels like crap so yours probably does too, but I get the feeling there's something else. Is it your team?"

"Not really." Gwen muttered. "They're okay. Sort of. And it's not the label, either. I get it. It's just..."

She hesitated.  
"I won't tell anyone if you tell me." I swore. "No one can get that out of me."

Gwen shrugged. "I guess I could say something. It's just...when I signed up for this season, I was sure Courtney would be on here."

I began to speak, but then stopped, thinking. Gwen was right. Why _wasn't_ Courtney on here?

"But..." I frowned. "You two were at each other's throats last summer. I remember. Why did you want to see her?"

"I felt guilty." Gwen admitted. "Not that I got with Duncan – he told me they weren't dating at the time. But I didn't want Courtney to hate me. Before the whole thing went down, I thought we were close to becoming friends. I wouldn't have signed up if I'd known she wouldn't be here. And now that I _am_ here, I feel like I have to try my best to win, even though I don't really care any more.

There wasn't much to say to that. I mean, what could I have said? I thought about it for a while, and then said "I didn't expect that. That's a really noble attitude. I think you should try to get in touch with Courtney after the show. I think, as long as you try, you can fix things. Is there a way you can get in touch?"

Gwen thought about it. "I still keep in touch with Bridgette..." she said slowly, "And I think she still has ties with Courtney, so maybe I could ask her."

I grinned. "You know, my big brother says I'm like the second-generation version of Bridgette."

Gwen managed a small smile. "I think I can see why. You talk a lot like she does – you even look sort of similar."

Who knew, first gen Villainous Vultures could make good friends for second gen Heroic Hamsters.

As it was, by the way, we lost the challenge. While my barfing at the same time as Gwen had closed the gap with our lead, we still had more to eat after three minutes, and the Villains were generally bigger eaters and better athletes.

Still the vote off was far too easy that night. Lightning and I met before the campfire ceremony, as usual. "So who you gonna vote off?" he asked.

I didn't miss a beat, telling him exactly who it was. "She slowed us down today, even if she wasn't the reason we lost. I don't think I was the reason, either. None of us went more than once, and because of that, all I really did was skip the obstacle course." I paused, thinking. "I'm curious – if you guys lost today, who would go home?"

Lightning thought about it. Then he said "Probably Heather. Most of us don't like her, and I keep thinking Al wants her out, anyway."

"You better not let him hear you calling him Al." I warned teasingly. "He really hates it. Owen did it all the time, and paid dearly by getting vibes of hate and uncertainty all season."

At the campfire ceremony, Scott volunteered eagerly for exile duty.

As for who we voted off? Well, my choice was my team's choice. I'd discussed it with Mike and Zoey again, and we'd decided, much as we liked her, she had to go.

Finally, it was just me and her, sitting there. "Tonight's loser is..." Chris began.

My teammate looked nervous. I probably looked the same.

Finally, we heard it.

"...Lindsay!"

I caught my marshmallow, and whispered "Sorry, Linds."

The blonde looked shocked and upset, but she made her exit with as much dignity as she had in the first season. She smiled and wished everyone luck, before us Heroes trudged off to the cabins and the Villains headed back to the hotel.

But before I went to join the girls, I nudged Mike. "Theory, remember? I want to know what the deal is, and we need Zoey to join us." He gave a nod, and while Sierra and Beth went into one side of the cabin and Brick into the other, the three of us sat on the cabin steps.

"Okay, there's something I need to tell you both." Mike said. He took a deep breath. "Back a while ago, when I was...I'm not sure, ten, maybe a bit older, I can't remember...I was in juvie for a while."

I couldn't stop a gasp from escaping. I couldn't imagine Mike in juvie, no matter who he was at the time. Zoey just nodded, eyes wide.

"The reason I was in there was because of another personality I had at the time." Mike explained. "He was charged with property damage and minor assault, and I had to take therapy sessions until I got rid of him. I don't remember actually being in juvie for a long time, but my sessions helped me get back in control. The thing is...this is how it began. Sleepwalking and breaking things – having brief memory lapses, not being able to find my other personalities – Danni, you gave me the idea when you said it might be another personality. I thought he was gone, but..."

Zoey's eyes were wide. Probably mine were the same. But Zoey spoke first. "So...what will happen next?"

Mike grimaced. "If it's anything like last time, it's only going to get worse, the longer it goes unchecked. It just started with him taking over while I was asleep. Then he started taking over for tiny periods of time, so I'd think I just spaced out for a moment. I was watching out for moments I wasn't really conscious, and they were there. I spaced out in the confessional today – I'm betting if you watch it back, you'll see him in there. The scary thing is...if it's left unchecked for too long, I can't do anything about it. He'll take over, and if I know him, he'll pretend to be me. That's why – I'm going to tell the others on the next challenge day what I'm about to say, but you two need to back me up. I have a request to make of you."

Then he told us what it was.

Zoey and I exchanged glances at his question. We didn't want to have to do that, we really didn't. But if it was really going to be for the best, for all of us...

We both gave him our promise that we would do it.

 **You can guess what Mike wants the girls to do. This scene was originally going to be in the next chapter, but I've got a pretty long-winded challenge to do next time. No, not the moon this time – next chapter will be a reimagining of one of my favourite Action challenges, though I would hate to actually do it. Take your guess – what do you think it is?**


	7. Chapter 7

**New challenge starting! Thanks for reviewing, Thunderstrike16, OmniPlanckInstant, yeezynight14, BluXRE, Piecesxoxo, SuperKitty4789, Bloodylilcorpse, TheProtecterOfHim and Nicky Haugh. Thank you all for lovely reviews, and I'm really glad you're enjoying the story, regardless of how you feel about the cast and eliminations.**

 **I also want to address flamers. If you have a problem with the technicals – logic, grammar or spelling, say so in your reviews and I'll try to improve in future. If you are just sending insults. I will keep deleting anonymous reviews. If you are a user, I will report you. "You're bullshit. Also, I win" is not a review, which is why I deleted it.**

 **As for the challenge...well, no one guessed correctly. Princess Pride and prehistoric were both good guesses, but I was thinking more mundane. It's more about...well, physical prowess. And cheers.**

I wished it wasn't a free day, the next day. Sure, it was nice to socialize, but I felt like I was constantly watching for signs of Mike's other personality. I was always thinking about it, always wondering what was going on in his mind, where the other personalities were, what they were all thinking.

I didn't say a word about what Mike had told me to anyone. It wasn't my choice to give that information. I didn't even talk to Zoey about it. We'd made our agreement, and what was done, was done.

Sierra eagerly asked me if I wanted to join another sleepover night in our cabin, but to be honest, I just wanted the day to be over. Beth admitted that she didn't really feel like staying up all night and gossiping anyway, now that her best friend was gone. "I just wouldn't feel right to do that without Lindsay. I know it can't be helped that she's not here, but girly nights in were always something we did together. I don't want to do that kind of thing without her."

Zoey wasn't into the idea, either, so Sierra gave up the idea. "Maybe we could do it after the merge." she shrugged. "Then if Gwen's still here, we can invite her!"

"What about Heather?" I asked.

Sierra thought about it. She shrugged. "I don't like Heather, but as long as she's not mean to anyone else, she can join in if she wants."

I was actually pretty relieved when the day was over, the morning came, and Chris called us all out to the campground, with Scott back and looking tired.

"It's great to see you all looking so bright and active," Chris said cheerfully (most of us were looking like 'I don't wanna do this'), "Because today, we've got an _action_ -packed challenge!"

I wondered if that was what I thought it meant.

"In Total Drama Action's last pre-merge challenge," ( _Yes!), "_ I pitted each team member against the other team's player in sports challenges, in accordance to who came in which place during drills. Since I've seen your physical skills, we're skipping that part and going straight to the one-on-ones. And since I don't want you to know who wins immediately and instead cause tension..." he grinned, "All of you, go back to your cabins. I'll call the worst two for each team for the first one-on-one. And by the way, when your challenge is done – you cannot tell your team the results, or your team is disqualified."

Us Heroes discussed what the challenges might be. "I think I'll be first." Beth admitted. "Last time, only Lindsay was before me, and you guys are all really fast and agile. I'm not."

We tried to tell Beth not to sell yourself short, but anyhow, Chris still called her to the beach...with Heather.

After our teammate was gone, I looked at the rest of the team. "That doesn't make sense to me." I frowned. "Heather's not the weakest Villain, is she?"

Zoey looked thoughtful. "I don't think she's the weakest. She's the least strong. The Villains don't have any majorly weak teammates. It was probably a toss-up between her and another Villain, and Chris wanted a rematch. They played badminton against each other last time."

When Beth returned, she looked run ragged. All she was allowed to tell us was that she and Heather had played tennis. Chris had used the time between the girls returning to call Mike and Scott, the next two.

Mike later on told us that the challenge was underwater diving, and I guessed that if he'd lost, it had to be close. The shark thing would make Scott pretty scared.

Sierra went down next, up against Gwen. I didn't hear what she'd done, though, because Chris called me down fourth. Considering there was six of each of us, that was okay. Third physically most skilled? Nice!

Chris called me to the same place where he'd put the ice during the capture the flag game. This time, it looked like an ice rink.

Duncan, my opponent, arrived before me.

"Nice of you to join us, Danni." Chris said. "As I was saying, your challenge is figure-skating. Each of you will perform a two-minute routine on skates, made up on the spot. Then Chef and I will each give you a score. Highest score wins it for their team. Got it?"

Did Chris rig this for the Heroes? First Scott had to dive underwater, and now I got a challenge that was made for a cheerleader. Duncan had some grace in him, but I was pretty sure I had a walkover.

Nope! I was totally wrong. Duncan went first, and although he didn't do anything really daring, he looked really good.

"Where did you learn to skate like that?" I spluttered.

Duncan laughed at me. "There's a pond that always freezes over near my house. Plus sometimes I've sneaked into the local skate rink without paying. Pretty much the only weak sport I have fun with."

Oh well. He didn't try to make any really difficult moves. I knew how to skate on the ice, and I wasn't too bad at it, although I didn't do it often. I outdid Duncan, managing to figure skate like a pro without a partner, spinning around, throwing in a few moves from long-ago ballet classes I took when I was about nine or ten. I even remembered to smile the whole time.

Duncan got a score of 6 from Chris and 8.5 from Chef. Both of them gave me 9s, so I had won.

We walked back together. "Good fight." I said brightly. "Never thought of you as the graceful type, but you looked pretty good out there."

Duncan met my eyes, looking slightly suspicious. "Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I took ballet classes when I was a kid, and I'm on the cheerleading squad at school. Guess you didn't watch last season. I'm not planning to mess with your team, okay, so stop looking all suspicious? I'm a Hero, remember? And why on earth would I sabotage you guys when my Lightning's on your team?"

I told my team as much as I was allowed to about the challenge, obviously omitting the performances, although judging by the smiles on my friends' faces, they knew I had to have won it.

Sierra told me that her match against Gwen was one-woman hockey. Meanwhile, Brick was absent, apparently playing against Alejandro. He returned from a...kayaking race...after Zoey, our last team member, left. And she was up against Lightning.

Brick looked really tired out. I felt sorry for him – I wouldn't have liked to go up against Alejandro in anything, although...to be fair, it might have been worse for me, being a girl. I'd seen Gwen come close to getting all girly over him. Heather was the only one who could resist him indefinitely.

Finally, ten minutes after Zoey's return from a makeshift bowling alley, apparently, Chris called us all down to the beach.

"Well, we tallied the results." our host announced. "And the winner is...undecided. We decided to go with our original tiebreaker..." As he spoke, some of the interns brought over the pompoms and things. Cheerleader stuff.

"But," Chris said, "It won't be so easy this time. Sadly, you're not allowed to cheer for me. You need to make up a cheer for someone on the other team, someone who you think deserves cheering."

Us Heroes went into a huddle. "I'm not cheering for Alejandro." Sierra hissed. "I have no respect for him."

"If we're playing that game, Scott's out, too." I whispered. "After last season, I don't respect him, either."

"If you don't mind, I can't cheer for Heather." Beth added softly. "Not after everything that happened with me and her."

"That leaves Duncan, Gwen and Lightning." Zoey surmised. "I think we should cheer for Duncan or Gwen, and take a vote."

The rest of us agreed. Beth and I voted for Gwen, but everyone else voted Duncan. I got the feeling Brick respected him for his strength even if he didn't follow rules, that Sierra still held a grudge against Gwen because Cody had a crush on her, that Zoey preferred Duncan for whatever reason, and Mike followed her because...well, the outcome didn't matter to him either way, so even if he did like Gwen better, he might as well vote with Zoey.

I choreographed a short cheer, having Zoey and Beth as flyers and Sierra and I as bases as far as the girls went. I had to do a bit of thinking to work the boys in, since I'd never seen any guy cheerleaders, but I managed it. After some practising, Sierra started writing a cheer with input from the rest of us.  
"I know how to suck up." she said confidently. "I had to do it with Heather all the time in World Tour. Plus I never run out of compliments to give to Cody. Duncan's not so easy, but there's lots of Duncan fangirls at my school, anyway. He's tough, he's laid-back, he's hot, he's way too good for Courtney..." she giggled. "He's nothing to me, of course, but I can see the appeal."

It didn't matter, anyway. The Villains did a better cheer for...well, Sierra. It was surprisingly good. During our cheer, Duncan started looking a bit overwhelmed – he didn't exactly like having a bunch of Heroes singing his praises. We had lost.

Zoey and I talked on the cabin steps, while Mike was telling the rest of our teammates what he'd told me and Zoey. "I guess it's time to fulfill that promise." I said sadly.

"I don't want to do it either, you know." Zoey sighed. "But we promised we'd do it. And..." she managed a smile. "I'd rather do this than lose Mike to that other sneaky persona."

When I met Lightning that night, it turned out the Villains had talked about who won and lost their challenges. Heather and Alejandro had beaten Beth and Brick, respectively. Lightning had also won against Zoey, although he admitted that she was more of a match than he expected. "That girl's little, but she's tough!"

I was feeling very depressed that night. The vote was harder than it ever had been. I even dropped my marshmallow when Chris tossed me the very first one.

Names were called out, until only Beth and Mike were left. "And, well, before I announce the loser," Chris said, "I would like to make it known that the votes were totally unanimous. For some reason, everyone, including the loser themselves, felt that it was time to turf...Mike."

Our friend gave a sigh of relief, and stood up to go. "I'll miss you guys. Bye." He quickly kissed Zoey and whispered something to her (probably wishing her luck), and went to be flushed.

Yes, that was the favour Mike had wanted. He'd asked Zoey and I to vote him off, so he could call his psychiatrist on the mainland and request sessions to keep the new personality out of his mind. And to be fair, I couldn't blame him. What use was a million dollars if someone else was using your body to spend it?

 **What? Did you think I'd bring Mal in early, only to let him take over anyway? The last time I wrote something based on All-Stars, Mal was a major focus. Early into the planning stage, I decided I didn't want him in there.**

 **How was the challenge? This was the first time I've made my own challenge that wasn't trivia, so I hope you liked it.**


	8. Chapter 8

**All right. Episode 5 of the original All-Stars heavily featured Mal. Now that he's gone, what shall happen?**

 **Thanks for reviewing, BluXRE, yeezynight14, Nicky Haugh, RebelToasters12, Pokemon FTW (I see your point, but she DID win the badminton challenge it was based on), Bloodylilcorpse and OmniPlanckInstant.**

Although I was sad that Mike was gone, it was sort of a relief. The tensions had been high while he was still there and stressing about causing trouble.

I spent half the day talking to Gwen, who came out of the spa hotel, looking miserable. "I just wanted to get away from my team for awhile." she explained when I asked. "Honestly, I don't think I can like any of them."

I frowned. "Why are you still with Duncan if that's true?"

"Oh." Gwen realized what she'd said. "Okay, so that wasn't quite true. It's not easy to be a couple while on the show, but at least no one's calling me 'New Heather' or anything. Duncan wants me to lighten up, but he gets why I don't feel like it. I've promised to get through things once the show's over. But I don't like Scott or Lightning, and I've never liked Heather or Alejandro."

I quirked an eyebrow. "You've never liked Alejandro? Not even when you first met?"

Gwen shrugged. "I never really talked to him, so I didn't get the chance to like him before everyone realized he was evil all along." She paused. "So...you don't have a problem with me not liking Lightning?"

I shrugged too. "My other TD friends don't like him much, either. My friends at home are okay with him, but I totally get why he's not at the best during competitions. He makes an effort to always be nice to me, but...well, I know how much he hates losing. And I know you lost that one-woman hockey thing to Sierra?"

Gwen actually laughed. "I knew that was going to be a nightmare. Sierra doesn't like me much as it is, and I'm not sure if Chris estimated her physical skills right – she's actually really tough and she has no problems with getting violent."

I paused, before asking the next question. "By the way, can I ask you something? Does Lightning ever talk about me?"

"Are you kidding?" Gwen said, smiling a little bit. "Besides the competition, you're all he talks about."

That made me smile too. I started to wish Gwen was on the Heroes team with me. She'd fit right in – okay, so Sierra didn't like her, but Beth had probably forgiven her for that whole challenge-throwing thing in Action (not that Gwen should've been blamed at all since she didn't ask Trent to do it, and made it clear that she didn't want him to) and I knew Zoey would like to hang out with her.

As a matter of fact, even when I saw the other villains, none of them seemed to be doing anything that villainous. Scott had done nothing influential in the game, Lightning wasn't one for evil plans anyway and nor was Duncan, Heather had barely said a word that wasn't about the game, and Alejandro was pretty much the same. The only person I'd seen him say anything to that wasn't about challenges was Heather.

As for the Heroes? Don't make me laugh. The only way we were going to get a Heroic Hamster villain was if Zoey went into that scary evil-twin mode she told me about last season.

We didn't have to wait until the next day for the challenge, though. Chris called us around sunset. " _Gather around the starting line for a big announcement!"_

As I walked with my teammates, I asked Sierra "What do you think he wants from us on a free day?"

Sierra shrugged. "I have several ideas. 25 percent says he's making team switches. 10 percent the merge – but probably not at this stage of the game. 15 percent it's a legit announcement...but most likely it's the 50 percent idea – he's making us do a challenge tonight instead of tomorrow."

She was absolutely right. Scott had already left for Boney Island, but he was dropped back down just after we reached Chris.

"Good news, you guys!" our host said cheerfully. "It's time for an extremely dangerous nighttime challenge!"

"How is this good news?" Gwen wanted to know.

"Entertainment value, hellooo? This one is gonna be ratings gold!"

The idea was just that we had to race the Villains to the other side of the island. The thing was, they got a map with a route for winning last time, and we had to wear hats with bacon and sausage belts with tails.

Oh, and even worse. Tonight was supposed to be a blue harvest moon. And if you've seen any cartoon ever, you know what that means – I just had to hope us Heroes wouldn't swap personalities like the I was almost glad that Mike wasn't around. With the fragile state he believed his mind to be in, there would've been a large chance the evil one would've taken over.

"We better follow the Villains at first, since they have a map." I whispered to Sierra. "Pass it on." She obligingly whispered it to Brick, who was standing on one side of her. He passed it on to Zoey, who passed it on to Beth, so we were all ready to run when Chris let us go.

"The moon doesn't look blue right now," Beth said, squinting up at it through her glasses. "Did Chris get it wrong?"

"Something tells me no." Sierra said, looking troubled. "Chris wouldn't get something like that wrong. But it is weird that it's normal at the moment."

"Well, even so, we need to be prepared for the situation, should he be right or not." Brick said decidedly. "Does anyone have any idea what to expect?"

"This is just a guess," I said, "But I think the animals will become their opposites. We'd have to avoid the usually harmless creatures. The usually aggressive ones will be harmless...that is, if the moon does end up going blue."

"Does it affect people?" Zoey asked, looking slightly pale.

I shrugged. "I don't know if that is the effect – it's guesswork. So I don't really know. Probably not."

We kept running with less conversation, but the Villains managed to lose us anyway. And then, it happened.

A shadow passed over the moon, and the light beamed out weird vibes. I started to get a weird feeling – like I wanted to just stop doing the challenge and wander off. I didn't care if we won or not, and I didn't need to try. They were faint feelings, but they were there. I tried hard to push them down. I wanted to win – we'd already lost two challenges in a row!

"What in the world..." Zoey began to say, but then the look in her eyes changed. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but a second later, she seemed to have this...confidence that wasn't there before.

"We can't just stand here while the Villains get ahead." she said in a harsh low tone, a voice I'd _never_ heard my friend use in a whole year. "Let's get moving, team – we can't let the others beat us again. I am going to make sure this time, we win!"

"Um, you mean we are going to, right, Zoey?" Beth spoke up timidly.

"Of course." Zoey said dismissively. "Now let's get going!"

Brick glanced up at the moon again, looking apprehensive. He gave a sigh. "At least the blue moon is giving off more light than usual. I can see everything clearly."

Everything was in a weird blue light, but it was lighter than most nights, so no wonder Brick wasn't so worried about being stuck in the dark.

"Is it just me, or is this not normal for Zoey?" Beth said in a loud whisper to me.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, it is kind of weird. But maybe that's me, too, because I've been feeling weird, too. Like I don't care so much about this challenge. It just came on suddenly."

Beth frowned. "Kind of weird. A minute ago, I started feeling angry that we'd lost two challenges in a row. I really want to win this one. And I'm even more angry at myself for not being the best teammate."

"Don't say that!" I insisted. "Just because you have some weaknesses doesn't mean you don't have strengths! You were known for being the nice one on the second season, weren't you? I remember the voting booth – DJ said he was voting for you because you were gentle."

Beth only shrugged. "I'm just saying, it's unusual for me to be so down on myself and the team. If you think you're feeling weird, times that by ten."

"OMG, feeling weird?" Sierra exclaimed, overhearing. "Don't even say any more. For some reason, I'm kind of over this show. I NEVER thought I'd be over it, but right now, I think I am."

"You guys are slowing me down!" Zoey yelled over her shoulder. She was several paces ahead. "Come on, people, pick up the pace! We have to win this one!"

The girls and I exchanged glances. We were all feeling weird, and Zoey was acting...well, kind of like Jo acted.

I think we all came to the same conclusion. I glanced up at the moon again. That could explain a lot.

To be fair, the challenge itself wasn't too interesting. It was our behaviour...well, mainly Zoey's. No one else was acting too different, but we all felt different. Brick later on mentioned that he'd felt like deviating from the straight and narrow and taking a leaf out of Duncan's book for once. But like me, he'd pushed the feeling away.

As we were heading for the finish line, the light changed. We passed the finish line, but the minute we had, Zoey stopped. The look in her eyes had changed back, and they suddenly welled up.

But whatever had happened, we'd won. Most of the Villains had crossed the finish line, but Gwen came running up late. Apparently the Villains had crossed the rope bridge, but Gwen had been too wary of it breaking to do so, and had gone a different way.

It was almost morning by the time we got back, so Chris told us to meet him at the bonfire the next night. "Meanwhile, Heroes, go enjoy the spa hotel. Villains, go back to the cabins."

Before catching up on sleep, I tried to get Zoey to talk to me.

"I guess I need to tell you." she admitted. "You remember what I told you last year, about assaulting the football team?"

I paused, thinking. "Yes...but you didn't hurt anyone. You were just...kinda competitive."

"But that's it." Zoey said softly. "I was in focus that time, because it was the moon, but...that's the me, the one I become when I get too stressed. If you or one of the others had argued with me or challenged me..." Her eyes welled up again. "I hate to think what I might have done. And it was this whole 'me me me' thinking going on. I don't _want_ to be that version of me."

"You're not." I said in comfort. "We all felt weird during the blue moon. Like the animals. You're not the only one – we're all the same."

That seemed to comfort Zoey momentarily, but all the same, I told the rest of the team to be nice to her, especially since I wouldn't be around for the next two nights.

Yes, I volunteered for exile. I might as well have a crack at finding the invincibility statue, and...well...Brick and Mike had done it. I would rather take a turn now than do it after a tougher challenge.

As for the vote off?

Gwen. But at least she seemed happy about it. She had lost the challenge for them, after all, and now she got to do what she wanted and get back in contact with Courtney.

She even took the chance to kiss Duncan goodbye, so even her wish to make up with Courtney hadn't changed that relationship. That was cute.

I didn't stay around to see Gwen get flushed. I was on my way to Boney Island.

 **Took me a while to finish that. I wasn't originally planning to bring in Commando Zoey so early, but I'm not great at writing her, so I didn't put much of her in. But yeah, in this AU, the moon affects everyone, not just animals and people with disorders. It's just that Zoey ends up showing it more and not realizing it's not the real her, while some of the others recognize their feelings as being unnatural.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay. Time to go to the Fun Zone! Thanks for reviewing, OmniPlanckInstant, Pokemon FTW, yeezynight14, SuperKitty4789, Bloodylilcorpse and Nicky Haugh.**

I at least got to come back the next day. Chris gave us a free day after the campfire ceremony, so I still had to spend two nights on Boney Island and one day hanging out in the spa hotel.

I discussed the invincibility statue status with the rest of my team. "Do you think someone else found it?" I wondered out loud.

Brick thought about it, and then said "Didn't Scott find it last season? I know for a fact he wouldn't sleep much if he had a chance to find it. It's likely he would have found it again. I had no luck with finding it."

"And Mike wouldn't have found it." Zoey added. "He would have told me. And Lightning would've told you, right?"

I shrugged. "Probably. He probably wouldn't take it if he did find it, anyway. He doesn't think he needs something like that."

I managed to spend a little bit of time with Lightning before Chef dragged me off onto the boat again, too. We'd had hardly any time together since Mike was voted off, and although we talked for a little while, the minute we kissed, the forest melted away and an hour went by without either of us noticing. Luckily, we had at least enough presence of mind not to show the cameras anything more – Chris wasn't necessarily into watching teen exploits (although I wouldn't put it past him), but he'd probably still tease us about it.

I didn't even get back on the island on challenge day. Chris didn't even explain to me what they were doing, so I had to get it from my teammates.

"Chris says we're going to some place called the Fun Zone, which is, for whatever reason, on Boney Island." Zoey told me. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

I gave a sigh. "Well, I looked for the invincibility idol for a few hours before it got too dark, then I climbed a tree and tried to sleep in it. So yes, but not enough."

The boat ride was a short one since it was on a motor boat instead of canoes as usual, so we soon got to the island.

"Ugh, I'd forgotten what a dump this island is." Heather muttered.

"Come on, now!" Chris said in his annoyingly cheerful way. "Maybe someone will finally find that invincibility statue!"

"If no one's found it already." I muttered. "I spent a full night searching for it."

"Oh, no one's found it." Chris assured me. "That's because it's hidden in the Fun Zone!" As he spoke, he led us to a large metal screen, gesturing to it.

This got Scott's attention. "What? So what the hell was the point of sending someone to Boney Island if we couldn't get to the statue?"

"Um, so the loser team would get a chance to win the next challenge?" Chris said. Then he laughed. "Actually, just so I could sleep easy knowing that someone was probably being maimed every night." No, I'm not kidding. He actually admitted it. Then he used a remote to make an opening for us beyond the screen, ushering us in. "Keep a steady pace!"

Trust that creep! He didn't even come in with us. Once we were locked in, he communicated with us via monitor. "You are now in the Fun Zone, aka, the most dangerous place you've ever gone!"

The place was full of the weird mutants from last season, the ones who had been removed from Wawanakwa with last season's toxic waste. Oh, and two baskets, each with one of the team labels, stood in front of us. And our challenge? Try to get a bunch of mutant eggs in a basket belonging to our team. Whoever got six of them first won.

Zoey disappeared early on, so I asked Sierra to help me search. We actually found one pretty easily, but we were greeted with a surprise when we got back to the baskets. I mean, we already knew both teams had one egg, but Alejandro was hanging around, apparently guarding the Villains' basket.

"I don't trust him." I whispered to Sierra. "One of us needs to stay and guard our basket. Chris doesn't care about cheating – I'm betting if we leave the basket alone, we'll lose our points."

Sierra shrugged. "I'll stay." she offered. "Anyway, I have a feeling one of our eggs will be hatching, so I'll need to stay and mother it, anyway."

I couldn't help smiling in amusement. "I didn't know you were so into animals!"

Sierra giggled. "I guess you could say I have a maternal instinct. I just love to look after tiny cute things."

"Hm..." I paused. "Would you consider Cody something tiny and cute?"

Sierra hesitated. "Sort of." she said slowly. "The only difference is that, while I want to look after him, I feel like I just _have_ to be around him. I need him as much as I want him to need me. Whereas I just _want_ to take care of other things – it's not something I have to do. Anyway," she added, "We've only got two eggs. You better go find some more – we can keep talking after the challenge is over!"

I didn't find any more eggs by myself, but I did see something very interesting. I had heard Heather yelling, and walked in that direction. That's how I saw it.

There was a broken egg sitting beside her, and beside that was a small grey little thing that looked familiar. "Hello, what do we have here?" she said out loud.

"The invincibility statue!" I whispered.

Then, she stashed it between a couple of rocks, and walked away.

I made a confessional about this when I got back to the island. "I thought Heather was one of the smart Villains! Why in the world did she hide the idol instead of keeping it on her? Even if people saw she had it or whatever, she would at least know if she lost it. What if...I don't know, someone saw her hiding it and distracted her away, so they could come back and take it themselves?"

Well, all I can say is that when Chris let us out (Zoey had managed to bring a whole nest to our basket and we won, 16 – 5), Heather was in a black mood. Chris had asked if anyone had left anything behind, and Heather had gone back for her statue, but she hadn't found it.

The second she was out, she trained her gaze of death on Chris and accused "You took it! I know you did."

"I have no idea to what you are referring." Chris replied neutrally.

I couldn't keep my mouth shut, then. "You expect us to believe that? I mean, really. What about your cameras? Although I will say this – you weren't inside with us. Whatever Heather's talking about, you didn't take it." I turned to Heather. "Didn't you check whatever it was was safe and that no one would see you with it? If any of your teammates saw something to your advantage, don't you think they'd take it?"

Heather glanced around at her team suspiciously. And the first person she looked at was Alejandro, coming to the conclusion I'd guessed.

He paused, and then said "I'll admit that I saw you hiding it, but I don't have it. Someone else must have found it. Maybe it was a complete accident. Anyone could have taken it, whether they knew you had it first or not."

I could tell a lot of the Villains didn't believe that he didn't have it. And I had to wonder – would that mean he was out? I'd have to talk to Lightning that evening, then he could tell me.

As it was, when I asked Lightning who he was voting for, he said "Heather. She's annoying me. And she keeps trying to boss us around."

I paused, thinking over what I wanted to say. Then I made my decision. "Don't you think it would be a better idea to take Alejandro out? I mean, if he was lying about not having the statue, then if everyone except him votes his way, I'm betting he'll vote out Heather and she'll end up going home anyway."

Lightning thought it over. Then he said "You've never said wiser words, cutie. One of those two are sha-gone!"

I giggled, and we spent the rest of the evening as close as we would get when we were aware there were cameras watching us.

As it was, there was no contest at all. My plan worked as smoothly as I'd hoped. Alejandro was voted off, Heather was...well, she acted pleased, but there was a torn look in her eyes, and I kept quiet. Meanwhile, Zoey volunteered for exile.

However, when Alejandro was preparing to get flushed, I followed him to the Dock of Shame, just so I could tell him. "I suppose you should know...you didn't get Heather's statue because of me – I got to it first. But you got taken out because Heather was telling everyone to vote you off."

Most of the Villains had headed to the cruddy cabins, but Heather was watching from a distance, too far to hear me.

Alejandro met my eyes. "I wouldn't have thought you would do something like that. Aren't you meant to be heroic?"

I laughed. "My goodness outweighs my strategic cheats. I can't say the same for you, sadly. Now let me ask you a question – when are you going to ask Heather out?"

Alejandro's eye twitched. I recognized it as a sign of irritation from World Tour reruns, but he answered "My personal life is my own business, but I suppose I could tell you that I'm leaving it up to her. If she decides she wants to stop denying me, then maybe something will happen."

I shrugged. "Okay. Good luck, then. And sorry you were voted out," I added over my shoulder, "But immunity idol or no immunity idol, you would've gotten three votes either way. Lightning tells me Heather was very convincing." (He had...apparently it just wasn't convincing enough for him to not want her out instead).

I had to keep the idol hidden, of course. But it didn't matter. I had it safe, and I was going to make sure no one else would find out I had it.

 **Yes, Danni was the one who stole the statue this time! I know, this means Alejandro didn't get his revenge on Heather, but she won't win this time, so at least he can take solace in that. Not a spoiler – I don't make finalists win twice.**

 **Also, please vote on my profile poll. Both votes aren't in my favour right now, so I'd like to see some support for my choice!**


	10. Chapter 10

**All right. It's time we got into what many people consider the best All-Stars episode in canon. Thanks for reviewing, yeezynight14, OmniPlanckInstant, PokemonFTW (in answer, I theorize he went after it after talking to Heather and came back for it later, and Danni waited for them to leave first), Nicky Haugh (thank you for the idea!), SuperKitty4789, RebelToasters12 and Bloodylilcorpse.**

It was a downer not to have Zoey with us during the free night. Since she and Lindsay were both away, Sierra and I, of course, invited Beth to share our room. She gratefully agreed, not wanting to be on her own.

During the day, when Zoey was back, she didn't seem like herself. Just before having to go back to Boney Island, she got me alone and whispered "Listen. Just in case anything happens, remember, I'm counting on you to win this game if I don't."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this? It's not like you're going to die on the island or anything. You can handle yourself."

Zoey bit her lip. "Well, yes, but that's kind of what I'm worried about – if I-" But Chef had already taken her off to go back. I wasn't sure what she was trying to say, to be honest. It wasn't like she'd been pushed too far before. She was a survivor.

During the night before the challenge, the girls and I sat around, talking. I guess we should've invited Brick, since he was on his own, but we all knew that despite not being as tough as he wanted to be, no boy would want to sit around and talk girl talk.

So what did we talk about? Well, off-camera stuff from our seasons, mostly. Beth confided that she was kind of glad Lindsay never made it far enough where there was no one to watch over her, because she was sure Chris would make a move on her. He'd never made it clearer than in Action – on-camera some of the time, but even more when the cameras weren't around.

Sierra admitted that she used to hang around outside Loser Class when her team won, just to listen to everyone else chatting, so she could learn more about them. She even admitted that Noah was her second favourite TD contestant. "If I didn't love Cody so much," she said, "I would ship them forever."

Now I knew about the Noco explosion after the accidental kiss on the ear, but still, I frowned. "I don't see it. Cody's so obviously straight. And I think Noah's asexual – he's never shown any interest in girls or boys."

Sierra shrugged. "Like I said, if. C'mon, Danni, don't ruin the dream of the fangirl!"

I gave a sigh. "I'd ship them if they were fiction. But they're real, aren't they? Oh well, we can speculate all we like."

We didn't see Zoey again until the challenge the next day. I spent the morning hanging out with everyone else. Brick was off talking to some of the Villains. Understandable – he was on a team full of girls, and he was probably missing bro time, since Owen was first off, and Mike had been gone for almost a week already (I wondered how he was doing on the mainland momentarily, wondering if that other personality was getting weaker or refusing to disappear).

Chris called everyone to that weird arena place. Sitting next to the "ring" was a wheel with little silhouettes on it, but I didn't take time to look at them. No, instead, I was looking at Chef, who was on the island with Zoey in tow.

"Looking rough, Chef." Chris commented. And he was right, Chef did look pretty roughed up, and nervous. However, Chris just teased him about having a run-in with some baby animal on Boney Island.

I didn't have to strain my ears to hear Chef's hoarse whisper of "That girl ain't right."

I paused, looking back at Zoey, trying to work out if there was anything different about her. I wondered if this was what she was trying to talk to me about before she left.

But as I looked, she gave a small smile and said in an energetic voice "Looks like this challenge is going to be a winner for us, right?"

But even then, I wasn't sure, but it sounded as if there was...something in her voice. I wasn't sure what it was. It just didn't sound quite right.

But I brushed it off. I needed to focus for this challenge.

Boy, did I need to focus. Chris said the episode was part No Pain, No Game and part Phobia Factor. Yeah...the endurance challenge and the fear-facing challenge. Each contestant would spin the wheel and come up with an opponent to box. We'd have to last two minutes in the ring with them – either winning, or not going down. The first team to get three points won immunity.

I spoke up. "Um, didn't you say Zoey got a reward for getting the most eggs last challenge?"

Chris gave a sigh. "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that, but..." He said Zoey got an automatic point without having to box. And that was the moment I knew for sure that there was really something wrong.

"Why don't I get to box?" Zoey said aggressively. "I mean, okay, I'll take the point, but I _want_ to actually do something to win this!"

"Why not?" Chris said cheerfully. "Looks like we have our first volunteer. Come on up and spin the wheel!"

So Zoey spun, and the spin landed on...

"Say hello to your foe...a bear!"

I gave a gasp. What were the odds? I knew for a fact that Zoey was more afraid of bears than pretty much all the other natural creatures on this island...and Fang to boot (although that was because he hadn't forgiven Scott for hesitating to give him back his tooth and went for him first).

But this Zoey didn't seem at all afraid. In fact, she proved that her point was earned by kicking the bear in the crotch and then punching it in the stomach before punching it in the nose. The poor thing was ready to leave the ring long before the two minutes were up.

Zoey? She just smirked triumphantly.

Scott went next, and spun to end up with...Fang. Phobia Factor indeed! Scott practically went catatonic and lost almost immediately.

It was my turn next. I spun the wheel forcefully, but it didn't matter. Now that I was this close, I noticed Chef had his foot on a pedal. The wheel would stop wherever he and Chris wanted it to stop.

This time, the silhouette was familiar. It was a person, tall, slim, and athletic. It was...oh, come on!  
There were only two people on the last season that I had disliked with everything in my heart. One was unconscious after being beaten by a shark, and the other stood right in front of me.

Jo.

"Hey there, Cheer Chick." she greeted me, sounding pleased. "Ready to lose to a _real_ athelete?"

I shrugged, trying to seem cool. "All I have to do is last two minutes in the ring. You won't even get to touch me."

Okay, okay. That wasn't completely true. I had to box, but I spent most of my time trying to dodge. The gloves did take a toll on my centre of gravity, so Jo got quite a few hits on me. Still, I earned my team the next point. Just.

But two points from Zoey and I weren't enough. Sierra and Beth both lost their rounds. Heather and Duncan, who each went before them, though, won. I was hoping against hope that Lightning would lose his round, because then Brick had a chance at tying up the scores (funny, I would've thought between me and him, Jo would have been his adversary...maybe she didn't actually scare him, or maybe it was because they really did like each other, like I'd always thought).

But it wasn't to be. Lightning won easily, and we Heroes would be sitting at the campfire tonight.

However, we didn't vote. Chris announced that he had something special in store for us tonight. The Villains got to choose which of us went, and we got to choose who to exile. "And, the teams are NOT merging! Now you may gasp."

A few of us had thought the merge had come, but of course not! Our mornings were merge times, not campfire ceremonies.

"So, Vultures, who's going home tonight?"

The Villains all started whispering. I couldn't hear them properly, but I felt safe. The special something in my pocket garanteed that I'd stay for at least one more round.

Finally, Duncan spoke up for the rest of the Villains. "Chris, we decided to eliminate..." I'm not sure whether he meant to pause for emphasis or not, but it felt like he did. "...Danni."

I looked at the Villains. Heather looked pleased and a little relieved, like she'd thought of me as a threat. Lightning looked annoyed. I knew he would have tried to argue my case. And Scott was smiling smugly. Oh, this would be delicious. Now this would take the wind out of his sails!

I smiled sweetly at the Villains. "Sorry, guys, but I should explain that Heather had the wrong suspicions last challenge. We all know none of you guys got the invincibility statue she hid. That's cause..." And I held it aloft. "I did."

"Well, what a time for a second twist!" Chris stated. "Okay, Vultures, I'll give you some more time to choose someone else."

I looked around at my teammates. Brick and Sierra both looked nervous. Beth was staring straight ahead, her face unreadable. And Zoey...I'm not sure what was up with her. She'd been acting strangely aggressive all day, and now she looked completely unconcerned.

This time, Lightning spoke for the Villains. "Our choice to take the Flush is...Zoey."

My friend immediately blinked, her eyes widening. Then, suddenly, her face changed, and she smiled. "I hoped I wouldn't go out like this," she admitted. "But the stress was starting to make me act...oh, it doesn't matter. Now that I'm out, I can get back to feeling like myself again!"

I hugged Zoey goodbye before she was flushed. "Say hi to Mike from me." I told her. "And I don't care what happened today – I know who you really are."

Zoey smiled gratefully. "I guess I've learned something – competition is the monster, not us. I'll be rooting for you!"

Oh, and as for exile? Well, we didn't really have any grudge. So we just picked the Villain who we thought had gotten off easiest so far – and that was Heather. She was still seething silently, ever since I'd pulled out the statue, but she didn't argue.

We may have lost something, but there was a weight on us as we went back to the cabins.

 **Yep, Zoey's gone, and with her Commando Zoey. A big SORRY to her fans, especially Nicky Haugh as I know you probably wanted her to stay longer, but I felt this was as far as she could go. I didn't want to take Zoey as far as canon did so that characters who still had potential development would get another chance. Hope you don't mind the way I did it. In short, the Villains are very game-savvy, and they knew that Danni and Zoey had the best physical skills of the Heroes.**

 **And now that Danni has used the immunity idol, you can bet she won't exactly be on Heather's good side.**

 **Sorry this took so long. I can't promise when the next chapter will be out. Hope you enjoyed it regardless.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Finally, the merge! Half the teams have gone – I think I managed to keep them equal – four Villains, four Heroes. Okay, a few more girl Heroes and guy Villains but I will be bringing one of each to the finale, promise. Thanks for reviewing, The Phenomenal Flair, PokemonFTW, Bloodylilcorpse, SuperKitty4789, yeezynight14 (Sierra is a representation of the fangirl and I feel it is my duty to preserve her as a truly unique character. After all, she can be rational and game-savvy) and Nicky Haugh.**

The free day was all right, if I was to be honest. But I felt bad. Both my allies, my closest friends on the show, were gone. At least Lightning was still here, and at least all my teammates were friends, but it wasn't the same. I'd been through so much with Mike and Zoey. And although I was closer to Lightning, we were still on different teams.

Beth read my feelings that morning, when I woke up and looked over at Zoey's empty bed. "You can still do your best to win this thing." she said quietly. "You know, for your allies? That's what I thought to myself when Lindsay was eliminated."

I paused, thinking about it. "You're right..." I said slowly. "But it's still tough. Mike chose to get voted out to make sure his mental health didn't get any worse. And Zoey had gone into that really crazy competitive mode. I know it's just coincidence, but seeing both of my friends losing the plot...it makes me feel like I'm going to do the same."

Sierra, who had been awake, looked down from the top bunk at me. "Hey, no losing your mind! _I'm_ supposed to be the hopelessly crazy one on this team, okay?"

Beth and I couldn't help laughing.

"Well, all the blogs except mine say the same!" Sierra grinned. "I don't mind – I kind of like being the successor to Izzy. I always liked her in the first two seasons."

Already, the two girls had begun to cheer me up. I was already beginning to feel better.

Lightning helped, too. As I'd guessed, he'd tried to stop the Villains from choosing me to go last challenge, but he'd been outvoted. We spent the whole day together, except at meals when he went off to the spa hotel with Scott and Duncan (and during lunch, Heather too), and I went to the mess hall with Sierra, Beth and Brick.

The one good thing about the team after four eliminations was that the dynamic hadn't changed. We were still a team of nice people with team spirit. It's just that there was only half of us left.

On the next day, Chris called us out to the front of the spa hotel. Why? Because...well, duh, it was merge time!

After telling us this, Chris' phone rang. "I have to take this. It's my stylist." he said to us, before walking off as he answered. "Yeah, how come my socks don't match my shirts?"

Lightning jogged over to me. "Sha-awesome! I've been waiting to get split off from the losers. Let's team up!"

I shrugged, smiling. "Okay. I was planning to ask you anyway. Just...neither of us let the other win, right? We work together and vote together, but if there's only one winner, we try to win for ourselves."

Lightning grinned at me and quickly kissed me on the cheek. "You think like I do. Final two, here we come!"

Having an alliance would be especially good in this cast, because I noticed pretty much all the other Villains had no alliance. However, my teammates were all saying something to each other, so I guessed that they would be working together. But I didn't expect them to vote me out just yet – I wasn't the biggest physical threat when compared to half the ex-Villains.

Chris finally came back. "Guy thinks _I'm_ colourblind." he was muttering. Then he told us our challenge. We had to regatta (boat race) around the perimeter of the island. Several boats were waiting at the dock for us – some would be good, some wouldn't. We'd get some obstacles along the way, but it seemed pretty straightforward.

When Chris told us to go, Lightning didn't want to bother keeping pace with me. Instead, he picked me up and put me on his shoulders, so he didn't have to wait for me.

"Are you sure this isn't going to slow you down?" I asked from above him.

"Apart from you being pretty light, nothing slows Lightning down!" my alliance partner answered confidently. "We're totally gonna bag the best boat!"

Well, we still got there first, so I couldn't argue with that. We found the old Boat of Losers from the first season and despite Lightning's protests (yeah, it was the word Losers), I insisted we take it, and started the engine the minute he had one foot on it.

Duncan and Heather were both right behind us, though on different speedboats. Well, at least they'd found one. Luckily, Scott didn't look like he was going to win as the best boat he could find was an inflatable one since Sierra had jumped on the last motorboat before he could get it. As for Brick and Beth, they got stuck with a wooden raft. I'm not sure how Scott beat Brick to the dock – maybe he was up to his old tricks of shoving people to the ground in order to get ahead (yeah, just like Courtney – they would be perfect for each other).

Wouldn't you know, after a couple of minutes of me driving, Lightning gave a sigh and said "You're driving too slow, girl! This is a race!"

I sighed back and said "Haven't you heard of slow and steady? We don't want to run out of fuel! But fine, if that's how you feel, you drive."

We got halfway around the island before we reached the first obstacle. I instantly made for the driver's place. "Coconuts are raining out there!" I exclaimed without thinking.

That's right, Chef was in a hot air balloon, throwing coconuts at the boats.

"What the-" Lightning began, sticking his head out of the door. Wrong move.

A coconut hit him in the head instantly and he was out cold. I paused, remembering the bell-ringing challenge from last year, when Lightning had been knocked unconscious and we'd had to use him as a ski. This time, it looked like I'd have to drive.

Well, fair enough. I drove. Chef, apparently, had thought he'd caused enough damage (probably because I couldn't get the boat to go as fast as it was before) and left us alone. But by the time Lightning had woken up (only about a kilometre away from the finish line), already, two boats had passed us.

As we got closer, we heard Chris announce "Heather wins it! And Duncan takes second place. Not that it matters, Lightning and Danni take third..."

"Third?" Lightning exclaimed. He turned to me. "What the sha-hell happened here?"

I didn't meet his gaze as I spoke. "I'm sorry...I'm just not as good at driving the boat and two of the others passed me. I didn't mean to lose us our lead when you got knocked out." I don't think Lightning had ever really been cross with me, in all the time we'd dated. But I knew the competition was really the one thing that could get him to act that way, so I wasn't too surprised.

But I was surprised when he didn't berate me or just walk away, but instead, tilted my face up to make me look him in the eyes. "I get you." He assured me. "Mistakes happen. And you didn't let them overtake you _too_ much. I know you tried. Just promise you'll make up for it later."

I managed a smile. "I swear I will."

As winner, Heather was told she got to have the spa hotel, and could let one person share it with her. I could see the way her grey eyes lit up, telling me that there was a lot going on in her head. She glanced at everyone, meeting their eyes for only a split second, but I could tell she was sizing everyone up.

Finally, she gave her answer. "I've decided to bring Danni."

I gave a gasp. Although I knew for a fact that she probably wanted a strong player on her side and that the Villainous Vultures had considered me a threat, I hadn't thought Heather would've sacrificed a night of enjoyment just to get me on her side.

I said as much when we were up in the one bedroom (Heather was really playing up her "I-want-to-be-friends" routine and saying we should treat our time in the hotel like a sleepover). "Heather, I always got the impression you hated me. You said so last year, and besides, the invincibility statue you found ended up in my hands. Do you really _want_ to spend two nights with a girl you don't even like?"

Heather blinked at me in surprise, then she shrugged and said "I don't like anyone else here that much. And besides, I at least think you're worth respecting. I could've said I wouldn't bring anyone. You have amazing acrobatics skills. And the fact that you got my invincibility statue just proves that you aren't afraid to play the game. I kind of have to respect that. I don't respect the other Heroes, because they were all so squeaky-clean."

I raised an eyebrow. "So you respect me for being more of a villain? Then you should've respected it when Beth stood up to you instead of trying to get rid of her."

Heather's cheeks went pink. "I was sixteen, okay? I'm eighteen now. Things are different...though I don't care, I only ever talked to Beth when I thought she was spineless, and she's grown a backbone in the last couple of years. My point is, you're one of the strongest players here. Your will to win reminds me of me."

I didn't reply to that. I didn't need to. Heather knew I knew what she was saying – that we should team up. It was up to me to say yes or no, and I wasn't ready to dig myself into oblivion by answering. Not yet, anyway.

I discussed it with Lightning that evening. "We've already got our alliance." I remarked. "But now Heather wants me on her side. What do you think I should say?"

"Say yes!" Lightning said instantly. "You don't have to go through it. We can keep our alliance, but let her think we have her back and then vote her off first chance we get!"

That was so simple. Why hadn't I just thought of that myself? I pulled Lightning into a major kiss, before thanking him. "Perfect plan!"

But Heather had immunity right now, so we'd have to take down another threat. We both agreed on a competitor who'd been consistently strong, every season.

"And dude's smart." Lightning added. "You don't see it at first cause he looks like he don't care, but it's true."

I didn't need convincing, but I thought our temporary third ally might. But when I suggested it, she seemed enthusiastic. "Totally! I've had enough of the boys on my team, anyway. Sending any of them out is cool with me."

"Well, it was Lightning's idea." I told her honestly. "So if you're going to try to get me to vote him off next time, you might also want to think about getting two votes against you. And I know Beth won't take much persuading to vote against you, too."

Heather tossed her ponytail, like she thought she was innocent. "Um, no. I didn't say that. Actually, the others were getting on my nerves. Especially since-" she cut herself off.

I paused, thinking about what she was going to say. I took a guess and asked gently "Heather, were you going to say what I think you were going to say? Because if you were, I asked him about you the night he left."

Heather paused, grey eyes wide, but she said nothing, so I said "He said he'd leave it to you to let things happen. But if you're still in denial, it won't."

Heather seemed to recover. "I'm not in denial about anything." she said stubbornly. "I'm just waiting for this game to be over. Nothing will happen while the game's still on. And no, I'm not telling you anything about what I'm going to do when it's over, so don't ask." she added hastily.

I held up my hands in defense. "Okay, okay, Heather, I'm not asking. Just because we're going to work together doesn't mean you have to be friends with me."

But anyhow, three votes seemed to be enough, that night. Chris threw marshmallows to all the former Heroes, and to Heather and Lightning. Only Scott and Duncan remained.

"And tonight, the person going down the porcelain pan is..." Chris paused, for emphasis. Then, he finally said the name.

"Duncan."

The delinquent gave a sigh and stood up. "Whatever. I'm out, cool. At least I don't have to put up with the usual crap we get here."

I'd expected that kind of reaction. Don't get me wrong, I liked Duncan OK and I'd rather have taken Scott out, but Duncan was far stronger. Scott hadn't bothered to do anything this season, so I figured it would be safest to get rid of Duncan first.

And as for Boney Island? Well, as a reward for making it to the merge, Chris said no one had to go that night.

I slept easy that night. Though, that was only after I knew Heather was asleep, too.

 **I haven't really concentrated that much on the Villains apart from Lightning. I don't really have much for Scott to do, but I figured I could show a bit of Heather's more manipulative side. She is still mad at Danni for stealing the invincibility statue, but she figures making friends with her will only help. Too bad Danni knows what she's really like.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay. Right. Episode 100. Here we go! Thanks for reviewing, Nicky Haugh, The Phenomenal Flair, yeezynight14, Pokemon FTW, SuperKitty4789 and Bloodylilcorpse.**

 **Sorry it took so long. Stress is a killer, and I've only just taken a leave of absence from college. I think I needed to do something else. I'll be back there in July (summer holidays are Christmas over here).**

I actually enjoyed the free day more than I thought I would. I still hung out with my old teammates most of the day. Since my last vote had gained the majority, I asked Sierra who she and the others had voted for.

"I'm not sure about Beth." she admitted. "I voted for Duncan because...well, he was the biggest threat left, duh. But she couldn't decide, because Heather had immunity and she didn't really dislike anyone else."

I narrowed my eyes. "Tell her to vote for Scott next time. He's not as much of a threat, but he really got me mad last year."

"Oh, I know!" Sierra nodded. "I watched Episode 9 several times online after it aired. And Scott still told Lightning you liked him after he promised not to, didn't he?"

I gave a nod. "I was just lucky that Lightning was prepared not to talk to me about it until the season was almost over."

Heather made good on her suggestion that we treat our nights in the spa hotel like a sleepover. For a few hours, we stopped being vicious competitors, and we were just a couple of girls hanging out together. We even discussed our separate experiences on Total Drama.

"So who was the worst cast in your seasons – or do you think mine was worst?" I asked her.

"The world tour." Heather grimaced. "Everyone there was either a threat or annoying. Or both."

"Funny," I mused, "The one person on that plane who really liked you was probably simultaneously the most of both."

Heather didn't have to be good at reading between the lines to know I was referring to Alejandro. "Is that one of the reasons you stole the invincibility statue?" she asked. "Because you knew he saw me hiding it and wanted to make sure he couldn't use it?"

"Not exactly." I admitted honestly. "I mean, I didn't see him there at the time. I just got to it first, but I was worried one of your other teammates would come across it and keep it. Or one of _mine._ If he had it, he almost certainly would've used it to vote you off. I think his ego's still bruised from allowing you to distract him on the volcano. But I think he'll forgive you as long as you don't win this season."

Heather shrugged. "Well, that's his call. It's not going to stop me from trying to win."

I shrugged, too. "Well, if we keep working together, you'll make it to the final three, at least." (I had no intention of letting Heather get that far, but I didn't have any intention of letting her know that, either).

I wasn't afraid to admit in the confessional how I felt about being in the spa hotel with one of the most vicious competitors of the game. "Look, I know why Heather invited me to the spa hotel. She thinks I'm strong and wants to gain my trust. That's okay. I feel the same way about her – she's strong and I'd like to have her on my side, but I know that she can and will vote me off when she feels like it. All I need to do is make sure I get to turn on her before she decides to turn on me. But for now," I smiled sweetly at the camera, "I'm going to make sure Heather thinks I actually want to be her friend. If she's really as cool as she's being now when she's at home, then it's not even a lie!"

When I was chatting to my Hero friends, I told Brick and Sierra that, but not Beth. I didn't want to shock her. The others were surprised as it was.

"Heather's nice?" Sierra said incredulously. "I mean, yeah, she pretended to like me, and I knew she was playing me and really thought I was crazy, but I never really thought she seemed real. She was too sweet."

"Well, I haven't spoken to her properly," Brick admitted, "But she always seemed fake or evil."

I shrugged. "Maybe she's a better actor now. Or maybe she _does_ respect me. I know it's not going to stop her from trying to vote me off."

Lightning was pretty surprised when I told him how nice Heather was being. "She was _never_ nice to anyone on the team." he said. "Didn't know she knew how!"

I laughed, nudging him playfully. "What did you expect? Who could be nice to a houseful of villains? You guys had to keep up appearances! And I know Gwen was all right, but that's because she hated being branded as a Villain. Weren't you mean to everyone on there, too?"

Lightning shrugged. "Lightning doesn't do mean. He only does cool or not cool with life. And I was mostly not cool with the other guys. Gwen wasn't too bad, just kind of boring. Duncan was sometimes okay to hang out with. Better than everyone else, at least."

"What was Scott like this time?" I asked curiously. We hadn't even spoken this year, and I was really curious to know if he'd changed.

"Apart from being scared of Fang, he hasn't changed." Lightning shrugged. "Except that he's done no scheming."

I shrugged too. "Okay. Well, it looks like we could vote him off at any time. I'll see how things are going with Heather and if it doesn't look like she's going to vote me off straightaway, we could get him off next. The other Heroes aren't really big threats yet. After we get rid of the other two, we can make an order of who to take out next."

But before the next campfire ceremony, there was another challenge. Just as Heather and I were getting ready for the day, we heard Chef over the intercom, calling everyone to the entrance hall of the spa hotel.

I exchanged glances with Heather. "I hope this doesn't mean _Chef's_ controlling today's challenge." I said nervously.

"Just keep your head down and do what he says." Heather muttered back. "I hate his challenges too."

But as it was, Chef wasn't controlling the challenge. He actually led us into a room down the hall we'd never used – the camera room! It was where all the footage was (if I got back into the hotel at some point, I decided I'd sneak in and take a peek at what I hadn't seen going on this season – maybe even that personality of Mike's I hadn't seen). Then, he turned on a monitor, and Chris appeared on the screen. He was somewhere on the grounds. Behind him was a table laden with party supplies, including a cake with a 100 candle on it. He even wore a party hat and then, he blew a noisemaker, grinning at us out of the screen.

"Welcome to episode 100 of Total Drama!"

"100?" I repeated, frowning. "Wait a minute...even if you don't count the specials, last episode was episode 100! We've had three twenty-six episode seasons and one thirteen episode season, plus nine episodes – yeah. Chris, your math is off!"

Chris narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't say anything. "Anyway, since it's episode 100," he said pointedly, "I thought to celebrate, I have an extra-special one hundredth episode challenge! I hope no one is allergic to rhinos, or fire, or poison..." He was reading off a list at this point, but most of us weren't watching him.

No, we were watching the green-skinned, red-eyed demon that had once been an innocent sheltered teenager.

"Um, Chris? Look to your left!" I called out. He completely ignored me and kept reading off the list.

"Look out!" most of the cast yelled.

This got Chris' attention, but he just frowned at everyone. "Please, don't interrupt. I'm -" Yeah, don't interrupt. It gives Feral Ezekiel enough time if you don't try to warn the host that he's going to get kidnapped by him, then the guy's going to break the camera, and Chef is going to accidentally spill coffee all over the monitors, breaking the sound and all the monitors.

"New challenge!" Chef bellowed. "Find Chris!"

We accepted the challenge, but we requested big things for it, because none of us actually really liked Chris. The winner won invincibility from this vote, permanent residence in the spa hotel, and the choice of who got exiled that night.

Our first task was definitely to search the mines. That was the last place we saw Ezekiel, and it would make sense for him to go back there. It was still sealed up, but there were several openings in different places, so Lightning and I took the safest one. At least, we were set up to, when I spotted one of my ex-teammates looking at the openings warily.

Oh. Right. Darkness.

"Hey, Brick!" I called over. "Wanna search with us? Safety in numbers!"

Brick looked sort of surprised, but he smiled and came to join us.

"Why'd you ask him to come with us?" Lightning whispered, clearly annoyed. "You really want him tagging along?"

"It's either a panic attack, or a couple of partners." I hissed back. "I don't want Brick to lose just because he's scared of the dark."

So, how was the challenge? Can't tell you much about it, actually. We were in the mine for about five minutes when something pulled me from behind, and next thing I knew, I was in a cage in a wide lit part of the mine. A few feet away from me was a vat of what looked like acid. And Chris was tied up, hanging over it.

And yeah, it was Ezekiel. So what was I supposed to do?

My first instinct was to say something. "Um, Ezekiel?" I called out timidly.

The feral kid looked up at the mention of his name, but he didn't snarl at me. I took that as a good sign.

"Um, I'm not sure we met properly on the last show." I went on, speaking as calmly as I could. "I'm Danni. I saw you back on the first season, and I thought it was totally unfair, your team voting you off first. You didn't mean any harm – I agreed with Duncan when he said Courtney should have gone."

Zeke actually seemed to understand me, because his face sort of...well, he wasn't smiling, but he definitely looked less defensive.

"Anyway, I was wondering." I continued. "Apart from Chris, is anyone supposed to get hurt? Or are you just going to put everyone in this cage? And are we ever going to get out?"

At the first question, Ezekiel looked confused, like he hadn't thought I would ask about him hurting anyone else, but he looked like he was going to cage everyone. And he just sort of shrugged on the question of getting out.

Well, I didn't get to ask any more because he scampered off, and returned with Scott in tow, this time.

I gave a sigh. "Oh great, you're the next one to get here. How totally wonderful."

Scott scowled at me. "You hated me last year! What, are you still mad that I told your meathead boyfriend you liked him before you could?"

"When you promised not to!" I countered. "And you only did that because you made a deal with me in order to blackmail Mike, remember? And I saw the rest of the season – I know what you did to B, and I don't have to remind you of what you tried to do to Dawn. And so far, you haven't given me any reason not to hate you. I'm not mad any more, but that doesn't mean I like you."

Scott looked away, like he'd been hurt by the way I'd spoken. But why had he expected me not to be mean? Had he really forgotten everything he'd done last year?

I sighed again. "Look, you're not the only one who's still getting hate for their crimes. How many of us on this season liked Heather? Did anyone want to be on her team? First day here, I said I didn't want to be teamed up with her. The worst stuff she did was _two_ years ago, and that's what people still remember."

I didn't have much more time to talk, because Heather was the next to get dumped into the cage.

I smiled at her. "You know, Scott thinks I'm being really harsh just cause I'm still making him pay for all the crap he did last year. You should tell him what it's like to be you."

Heather grinned, although there was still traces of annoyance on her face at being taken out of the challenge. "Yeah, well, he should just get over it. No one's forgiven me for anything I did two summers ago, and I'm not getting all depressed about it. I mean, who cares if a few losers can't take the competition?"

I raised my hand. "Um, loser speaking here. The reason I'm still not liking this guy is because he blackmailed me and then didn't keep the deal, blackmailed one of my friends, tried to eliminate most of my other friends, and was just generally trying to make our team lose everything."

That got me a tiny smile from Heather. "Okay, throwing challenges drives me crazy, too. But apart from that, you didn't exactly have your head in the game last season if that's what you remember."

"I was also a finalist first time." I pointed out. "You had to play three times before you got there."

Heather shrugged. "Whatever. At least I won. You didn't."

She had me there. I shrugged back, though. "You were up against someone who was into you. Mike and I will never be anything more than friends. Maybe I would've had a better shot if I was Zoey."

Beth, and then Lightning, joined us. There wasn't really much to say until Sierra and Brick finally showed up, uncaptured and ready to rescue Chris. In the end, Sierra fearlessly distracted Zeke, while Brick sneaked past and untied Chris, who was now screaming for help.

He wasn't too grateful at the time, but once we were out of the mine (Zeke had completely disappeared) and at the campfire that night, Chris acknowledged Brick's rescue. "He saved all of us, but most importantly, he saved _me._ So I'll honour the deal Chef made. The spa hotel is yours, Brick."

I was sitting next to Sierra. "Like you didn't do anything!" I whispered to her. "You deserve to get to stay there, too."

She shrugged. "If I deserve anything, you and Beth have to join in another sleepover night tomorrow. How's that?"

I giggled. "Okay, fun. Even if we are stuck in the cabin."

Brick chose Lightning to go to exile, sadly. Apparently he hadn't been at his best after I was captured. And as for elimination...well, I'd spoken to Lightning about it, and we'd agreed it was the best decision. I'd also spoken to Brick, Sierra and Beth, and they'd all agreed to it.

Yes, finally we were sending Heather home. I'd enjoyed her company while it lasted, and I genuinely thought she might actually have been okay to hang out with for a little while, but ultimately she was just too much of a threat and I still felt relief when she left the campground.

One more down, and now, the game would get ugly.

 **Well, okay, next challenge is kinda original...I better get Chris to let the campers watch a movie before it. I'll give you a hint. I'm going to make the challenge a parody of an iconic horror movie that involves reality warping...sort of. Wanna take a guess?**


	13. Chapter 13

**Right. Okay. I did it. Another new challenge. Thanks for reviewing to Nicky Haugh, Pokemon FTW, Bloodylilcorpse and The Phenomenal Flair.**

Sierra hadn't really meant it about the sleepover night, but she and Beth and I stayed up late anyway, just talking. We were painfully aware that with Heather gone, all the female Villains were gone, and endgame was really near. We were mostly talking strategy.

"I want Scott gone next." I said decidedly. "I know he hasn't done anything this season, but he doesn't seem to get what he did last year was even that wrong. I think he should try to figure that out before he wins a season."

"I can't see him learning." Sierra stated. "He's too far gone. I don't know for sure, but from what I saw last season, I don't think he's ever going to learn much."

"No offence, Danni, but I don't want Lightning to win, either." Beth said quietly. "I just feel like him winning will mean us taking far too much gloating from him. "

I gave a sigh. "I know, I know. If it wasn't that me and him _have_ to team up, I'd ask you both to form a girls' alliance. How about this, though – you two help Lightning and I to get rid of Scott first. Then just don't let me know when you try to take out Lightning, and I won't ask."

"I'm in." Sierra said immediately.

Beth looked more doubtful. "Well..." she began shyly, "I kind of...asked Brick if he'd ally with me. We're not really working together, but we got on really well when we were in teams and during the boat race, so if it comes down to that, we were going to take each other to the finale and vote together. Can I ask him to join that plan?"

I shrugged. "Sure, whatever. I don't mind. Brick's a good guy, and he got kicked out unfairly last time. Besides, five votes makes me feel more secure than four."

"But..." Sierra began. "What if Scott wins invincibility this time?"

I shrugged. "Then we vote differently and move voting Scott off to the next challenge. He's smart, but I don't think he'll win invincibility every time. He hasn't come that close to winning the last two, and Zoey beat him in the first post-merge challenge last year."

As for the free day – well, since Lightning was only there for a little while, we spent as much time together as possible, just talking. Since we were officially teamed up for the time being, we could spend all our time doing what we liked best. I let him know about my conversation with the girls, of course, so we were all set to take Scott out next.

It was a good thing we didn't stay up late the next night. We all turned in before ten, and I'm not sure if I got even four hours of sleep before an airhorn was blasted from the intercom. " _UP NOW, CAMPERS!"_

Most of us stumbled out of the cabins, only just dressed and still pulling on our shoes. Chris, of course, was immaculately dressed as usual.

"Challenge time!" Chris grinned at us. "Tonight, you will be facing...your worst nightmares!"

There was a pause.

"We're going to drop each of you in a different place on the island." Chris clarified. "Your challenge is to get back to camp before sunrise. However, this will be difficult as your worst fear will be following you. By the time you get back to camp, you need to appear fearless to get invincibility – and we know how each of you look when you're scared."

That was sort of true. I knew that Lightning started moving really fast but never really got anywhere when he was scared or stressed, Sierra was prone to crying, Beth got really still and quiet (well, she couldn't scream whether she wanted to or not because of that doctor's earring), Brick would start stammering and his eyes would flicker around, Scott stereotypically just screamed when he was afraid of something, and as for me?

I usually just froze. I wasn't quiet like Beth, but pretty much the only thing that I could do was scream. I was the type to freeze.

Okay, well, I'd have to move if I wanted to get back to camp. That was what I had to remember. I wasn't sure of what would follow me, though. What was I most scared of? Whatever it was, I was betting Total Drama had probably taken opinions from people I knew.

As for other people? I remembered some of them. Brick was scared of the dark, Beth was scared of being covered in bugs (had the kiddie pool of worms meant she'd conquered that fear?), Scott was afraid of Fang, and by extension, sharks, and I was pretty sure Sierra was scared of losing Cody. Lightning didn't have to tell me what he was scared of, because I knew before we even started dating that he was afraid of losing, or being labeled a loser. Not surprising – I met his dad, who was very proud of his triumphs, but came down hard when he lost anything.

Chef dropped each of us off at a different place. He went alphabetically, so I was dropped off third. I had the chance to whisper "Be brave" to Sierra and Lightning and give Scott a threatening "I'm watching you" motion before Chef dragged me out of his jeep and tossed me into a little clearing in the middle of the forest. Or maybe further away, since I was pretty sure I'd never seen this part of the forest before, not even during the leech/paintball fight.

I momentarily wondered exactly where camp was from where I was. I knew that the forest was north of the campground and the dock was south..but with the sun down, that didn't help me. I figured I'd have to just start walking and find landmarks to make sure I wasn't walking in a circle (Actually, I found the tree with a fork in it that Katie and Sadie had found two years ago when they got lost in the woods).

But before I could start walking, it started raining. Even when I left the clearing and was surrounded by trees, the rain still pounded down upon me. Soon my hair was dripping, and my clothes clung to me. And that was the good part.

The bad part? Lightning, for one. Thunder, for another. Both words are right up there in my vocabulary with "nightmare" and "phobia".

Yeah, I guessed it was the phobia factor part of the challenge. I was, after all, terrified of thunderstorms. We'd just been lucky with the weather on the island so far. I just had to get back to camp, pretending that I wasn't scared of being struck by lightning. So it probably wasn't actually raining – just something like that electronic hail cloud they made in the first season. But the thing was...knowing where all the rain, sound and light came from didn't make me any less scared.

What else could I really say about the challenge? Well, everyone made it back before sunrise. Not all of us conquered our fears, though. Brick had dark circles under his eyes (well, we probably all did, but he reached panda levels), it was easy to tell Sierra had been crying, Beth was still flicking some ladybugs off her legs, and Lightning looked slightly dazed (he told me later he'd had a shock collar put on him, trained to shock him if he ran any faster than a certain speed, making him sure to lose – his worst fear, of course, was losing).

Scott? Smugness was written all over his face. Of course he had to have invincibility.

We spent the next day free, having the campfire ceremony that night. I caught up on my sleep in the morning. After that, I chatted to some of my former teammates, who told me what had been going on. Brick had just been dropped in the darkest part of the forest and had taken a while to calm himself down. Beth had been followed by a blanket of bugs – she'd actually made it back to camp first, but Scott had won because he'd managed to shake Fang and she still had a few bugs sticking with her. Sierra's face was still tear-stained, and she explained that the route she'd taken had sounds piped in – mostly some of the insulting or opposing things Cody had said in World Tour confessionals, or even when he was angry with her, reminding her always that Coderra was in her imagination. Then I told them about my fear of thunderstorms.

After that little talk, I spent the rest of the day with Lightning. I think we were both hyperaware that we were likely to be separated soon, so we spent extra time having fun together. We showed off for each other, played stupid games, talked and cuddled, then we made out on the grass in the forest.

"It's like being in one of those fairy tales." I giggled. "What's the one where the kids die in each others' arms?"

"We ain't gonna die, girl." Lightning said firmly. "We're living the dream – winning!"

I laughed again. "I didn't mean it like that." I reminded him. "I was just thinking – we're lying in the woods together, just like those two children, who were left in the woods and then died holding each other." I nestled closer to him, but the afternoon passed far too quickly.

I deliberated long and hard over who to vote for that night. I knew for a fact that my friends were probably all going to vote for Lightning, but I couldn't do something like that. I couldn't vote Scott. Even if I did, I'd be wasting my vote. And I couldn't bring myself to vote for any of my friends. So, in the end, I voted for myself. I was pretty sure no one else would vote for me, after all.

I was right. Not just about myself – about everything. There were four votes for Lightning, one vote for Beth, and my vote. It was truly an awful thing to watch my boyfriend walk down the dock again. At least, we managed to get a real kiss in, instead of having it cut short like last year. We kissed before Chris flushed Lightning.

Oh, and Beth offered to be the one in exile. She hadn't gone yet, and she didn't want to shirk her turn. I just had to hope she'd remember not to bring anything back.

As for who Scott took to the spa hotel? He chose Sierra. A weird choice, we all thought. Even Sierra gave him a weird look, but she wasn't going to pass up a free night in luxury.

After all, you'd have to really be crazy to say no to that.

 **And as we all know, Sierra is completely sane. I know the chapter was short, but I'm sorry, not an easy challenge. In case you didn't know, the movie franchise I was referencing was _A Nightmare On Elm Street._ Often, the dream sequences play on fears or interests the characters have, like Debbie's fear of bugs (she turns into a roach and then gets squished) and it suggests that Dan thinks his mom hates his girlfriend, and poor Greta chokes when she's force-fed her insides – I think it's to do with her mom wanting her to model.**

 **I'm not really looking forward to the Obsta-Kill Course, either, but well, we'll try it next chapter. See you then!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay. Let's keep moving. Thanks for reviewing, Nicky Haugh, The Phenomenal Flair, Bloodylilcorpse, SuperKitty4789, Lord Of The Sloths and Pokemon FTW. Sorry these chapters are getting so short.**

Sierra didn't spend that much time in the spa hotel during the free day. As she put it to Beth and I when Beth was back on the island for the day, "The luxury's nice, but as for the company, that leaves much to be desired."

"Let me guess..." I chuckled, "Scott wants to make an alliance with you?"

Sierra gave a nod. "I know why, too. He's dropped a few hints that he wants you to go next. He knows you're gunning for him. He's only after me because I have the weakest ties with the rest of you, and of course, your ally's been taken out so it would be an easy matter for me to convince everyone else of it."

"I've talked to Brick about who to take out in the final four." Beth said quietly. "He's said the same thing, but we both agreed that Scott should go before anyone else. Whatever happens, I'm going to stick to that promise."

"So, I've already got three votes against me if Scott gets immunity?" I mused. "Looks like I'm really going to have to work hard for invincibility in the next couple of votes. And I know who to vote off after Scott's gone." Then I smiled. "I know it's a game, and I know we have to play to win, and I appreciate you being honest about your plans in voting, Beth, but...it does mean that I will be trying to vote you out the same way."

Sierra, who had been listening to me with a thoughtful expression, got a small smile on her face. "What about this?" she said brightly. "Danni, we can be allies from now on. Since the Bs are each other's final two, we can do the same. Then in the final four, we can force a tiebreaker, and then we'll leave it up to fate. May the best man or girl win!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I said doubtfully. "What if Chris just makes it a double elimination?"

"I don't think he will." Sierra reassured me. "I know how many episodes needed to be in this season, and unless one of them is non-elimination, there won't be any doubles."

I smiled, but another thought hit me. "I just hope Scott doesn't win invincibility tomorrow."

"We'll just have to work extra hard, then." Beth said optimistically. "You guys are both super athletic, and I'm good with animals, and Brick's way disciplined and strong, so between us, we should be able to keep invincibility away from him!"

How I wish that Beth hadn't been in exile! When Chris called us out the next day, he warned us that "Whoever gets here last drops and gives me fifty!"

And as the last of us came running up, he said "Glad you could join us, Beth. You know the drill: Last one here equals push-ups there."

"But it's not my fault – I only just got back from Boney Island!" Beth protested.

"You mean..." Chris pulled out a megaphone, " _I only just got from Boney Island, SIR!_ "

Yeah, it was an obstacle course challenge, apparently a callback from the obstacle course during Chef's boot camp in the first season (just remembering the cuteness of a particular relationship there brought a smile to my face). We had a bunch of tyres to run through, a wall to climb up (with several ropes that varied in reliability), monkey bars over a pool (Chris called them 'snapping bars' which I guessed was a hint), a zone where we'd get shot at, and then...well, Chris said we were in for a real, uh, "treat" after that, but didn't actually explain what was next.

But that was because Scott scoffed about it being easy _again,_ and Chris announced that we all had to wear heavy packs during the whole course, or get a penalty. I guess the packs weren't really that heavy, but they were definitely enough. Tiny Beth looked as if she was about to collapse – it honestly wasn't fair to make someone her size carry something that heavy.

So the course was...yeah, a bit of a nightmare to be honest. I had expected booby-traps everywhere – this was Total Drama after all – but the number of booby-traps in the tyres was just crazy. Scott practically ended up doing the splits, if his cry of "MY FOOT IS TOUCHING MY FACE!" was anything to go by. As for me, I triggered a hose switch and had to do the rest of the course with dripping hair and clinging clothes. And then Brick glanced at me and went scarlet, looking away, so now I knew my bra was showing, too.

But at least I wasn't flashing anyone without a bra, like Heather back in the first season, so I just winked at the camera and kept going.

I think there were a few more booby-traps in the tyres the girls hit, but I was second to reach the ropes after Brick (he'd probably done a tonne of these before at cadet camp, and without maggot slime and fuzzy glasses he could ace it) so I didn't waste time looking back when I heard Beth give a squeal of shock.

I surveyed the ropes for a minute. Brick had taken a thick, greyish-brown one. The remaining ones were red, black and light brown. But the black one seemed to have sparks coming from it, and when I got close enough to the red one I could smell the licorice, so I took the light brown one instead. Sierra actually ended up taking the licorice (and survived), and Scott took the black rope when he caught up (yes, it was a faulty electrical cord.

I was still only in second place, but that was okay. Scott was in fourth, Sierra was right behind me, and although Beth would probably be last, at least her ally would have invincibility and we could all make good on our promise and take out Scott.

I could take a little bit of a guess what the snapping bars would entail, so I stayed in a crouch as I swung from bar to bar. Lucky, too, because a few more inches and the turtles would have had a good knaw on my sandals – and probably my toes, too. Mangled shoewear was bad. Eaten toes would be much worse.

Okay, so I wasn't so lucky in the duck-and-cover zone. Chef was shooting leeches at us, so every so often, I had to keep ducking behind a bush so I could pull off one leech without getting another shot at me. I had to do this three times before I reached the zipline. However, by that time, Brick already had immunity, and Sierra was pulling stuff out of her pack.

Yep, the penalty for leaving your pack was not being able to zipline effectively. Gotta give Chris props – and wearing them wasn't Scott's fault after all. Oh well he still suffered. The guy left his pack behind, enabling Beth to end up in joint last, rather than last on her own.

And like I said, Brick had immunity! About time the dude got to show off his skills. I congratulated him that night. "This is, like, the first time I've really seen your skills in full! How many years have you gone to cadet camp?"

"About nine years now, I guess?" Brick paused to think about it. "Wait, eight. I was here for most of last summer but I got to join late once the season had finished, and I'm going back after this season is over, so that's two halves." He blushed a little from the attention. "I wasn't the best at most of those courses, really. I'm really just average – the only reason I won today was I was the only one used to obstacle courses, and trust me, some of the men I'd had to answer to are worse than Chris."

Double B, of course, got the spa hotel that night, but that was okay. Chris informed us that exile was no longer in effect since there were so few of us left, so Sierra and I would still be sharing a cabin for the night. And equally predictable was Scott's inevitable finish.

But I still went down to the dock to say goodbye. "Sorry about all the shaming." I said guiltily. "I know you didn't really deserve it all this season. But face it – you would have been here two days ago if you hadn't won immunity. But..." I hesitated. Did I really want to add this?

Yes, I did.

"If we're ever on another season together," I told Scott, "I'll let it go. I won't try to get you out unless it's something to do with you that season. I'm not going to ask you to do the same for me because I don't trust you. But remember that." Before Scott could reply, I turned and walked back up the dock.

The last thing I heard was the sound of swirling water.

Oh well. At least Scott was gone now. I could sleep a little easier, now knowing that the victor would be someone nice, someone who deserved it.

Although, when I thought about it, I knew who deserved to go next.

 **There's a really easy way for me to tell you who the final two will be, but who wants to tell you? However, a certain someone (and if you're reading, I don't know because you stopped reviewing, you know who you are) will no doubt be pleased when they find out. However, for now, you'll just have to wait. I think I must have eliminated the sundae episode by accident, but I've changed my mind. Therefore, the next challenge will be different to as it was originally, however Episode 12's challenge will not happen while the final three will have to do the sundae-making challenge (be fair, can you really say the challenge was exceptionally problematic?).**


	15. Chapter 15

**Right. Almost semifinal time, but not quite yet. Thanks for reviewing, Nicky Haugh, Lord Of The Sloths, Pokemon FTW, La Rosa Rossa, The Phenomenal Flair, SuperKitty4789 and Bloodylilcorpse.**

I discussed the next vote-off with Sierra during the free day. However, she didn't seem as sure as I did.

"I mean, I can see your point." she said. "But do you really think either of them, you know, _deserve_ to leave?"

I gave a sigh. "Of course not. I just think that if I want to take someone to the finale, I'd rather take someone who has proved themselves worthy of being a finalist who hasn't been a finalist. If I get immunity or Double B targets you regardless, that's what could happen. Anyway, who would you go up against – a former finalist or a former non-merger?"

Sierra thought it over. Then she let out a sigh, too. "Okay, let's make a deal. After the next challenge, whoever has the highest placing gets to choose who we vote out. Deal?"

I shook her hand. If nothing else, I wanted to stay on Sierra's good side. Besides, I trusted her judgement. We didn't always have the same ideas, but no one knew more about Total Drama strategy than Sierra. She'd studied it for years, after all.

Even though we didn't have a sleepover night in the cabin, Sierra and I still stayed up late, talking about anything and everything. We were still in Courtney and Bridgette's old bunks, and we talked a little bit about our Season 1 counterparts.

"You know, Gwen actually told me that I look and talk like Bridgette." I told my friend. "Do you think I'm like her?"

Sierra hesitated. "Maybe." she said. "Onscreen, you definitely do. I know that she's an honour roll student and spends most of her time doing a ton of charity work, and I know that's not you. But your general manner is the same." I could just about see her looking regretful in the dim light. "I wish I got to talk to her properly. But she was only on the third season for...less than a week, actually. I hardly even saw her, since we were on different teams and we were always up in First Class until the day she was eliminated."

"So, what about you?" I asked. "Do people tell you you're like Izzy? You said the blogs do, but anyone in real life?"

Sierra giggled. "I told some of the others that I keep in touch with. Izzy says she doesn't see it, but I expected that – you know, she looks at things differently. Cody says it couldn't be truer. If Owen had stayed longer on here, I would've asked him to let Cody know why dating a girl like me and her is a good idea!" She giggled again.

After that, we chatted a little bit about some random trivia. It was like we knew.

You know, having an island full of Heroes was awesome. About fifteen minutes before Chris called us (to the Chrisoseum this time), Double B visited us with a bacon sandwich each. Yeah, no one said they couldn't smuggle stuff out of the spa hotel. And while I usually avoided bacon (not good for the hips), I practically inhaled the sandwich. Who knew when I'd get food like that again?

Anyway, we got to the location, and there stood Chris. He was standing on a podium, which faced four smaller podiums, all marked with our names.

"Good morning, Final Four!" Chris greeted us. "Since you all did so well at the last _physical_ challenge, I decided that this time, we're going to make your brains do the work. The good news is that this challenge won't kill you."

Beth and Brick gave sighs of relief, but Sierra and I knew better. There was a catch.

"But it might totally humiliate you!" Chris laughed. "I am going to move along the podiums and ask each of you a question about something that happened in a previous season of Total Drama. Answer the question correctly, and you are safe. However, once you get three answers wrong, you are out. But, because I'm a nice guy, I'll start off easy."

I quickly ran to the confessional for that. "Great. Just great. I've only seen every episode of Total Drama once. Sierra's seen them, like, fifty times! How can I compete with that?" I gave a sigh. "If Double B weren't gunning for me before, they will be by tonight. Looks like I'll have to resign myself to a tiebreaker."

Chris wasn't lying about starting the game off easy. It wasn't hard for Beth to name Heather's dare downfall as having her head shaved, for Brick to pinpoint Courtney's law suit as her reason for returning to the season, for me to remember that London was where Courtney and Gwen found Duncan. And it certainly wasn't hard for Sierra to remember that our mutant spider was actually Izzy in disguise.

But the questions got harder. We had to remember elimination orders in the next round, and Beth stumbled when she almost said that Harold had been voted out in the third season and only just turned it around when she remembered that DJ had been voted out and Harold had eliminated himself instead. It took me a few seconds to remember the name of the episode that the Screaming Gaffers got rid of Heather in, but Brick seemed to have no trouble remembering that we voted off Anne Maria in fifth place (even though he'd already been eliminated), and Sierra confidently relayed the story of how Cody was mauled by a bear in the first season and got kicked off afterwards (although she looked a little teary-eyed for a moment there).

Next were questions about random contestants, stuff learned in various episodes. I did a little better, remembering instantly one of Owen's Aftermath confessionals (I had to give any, so I relayed him pushing one brother down the stairs and blaming it on his other brother). Brick was able to recall Geoff's fear of hail. Sierra had no trouble answering a question about B's ambition to build a computer with the prize money (yeah, they televised me talking with him and Dawn early on). Beth was the best this time, though. It took absolutely no pause for her to answer a question about the reason Lindsay gave for being so insistent that Team Victory could win (the amount of lip gloss she'd brought with her was barely used).

But as the questions got harder, we started to drop out. Brick was the first, because he was too caught up in training to watch that much of Total Drama and missed a lot of the stuff he didn't see live last season. Then Beth, because although she knew everything about the first two seasons and the people in it, she knew very little about Sierra and Alejandro, as well as those in my cast who didn't compete this season. I was starting to struggle by that time, and had even managed to get two questions wrong, but Sierra had every answer right, every time. It was like a nightmare. I was determined to keep going, but beating Sierra was an impossible task. She had an incredible memory and an extensive knowledge, way beyond what I knew.

In the round that became the last, we had to answer questions about each other. Sierra was able to relay my most embarrassing moment easily (the time my skirt blew up after the squad's cheer for the soccer team), but when Chris asked me which member of the original cast had been feeding Sierra information, I was completely stuck. I knew it wasn't any of the guys, and I eliminated several girls immediately.

But it didn't matter. I made a wild guess (Lindsay, since she was kind of easy to get secrets out of), and Chris just smiled wider and said "Nope! Danni, you're out! Sierra, you've got immunity and a night in the spa hotel!"

Sierra squealed happily, but stopped long enough to whisper to me "The answer was Izzy!"

I mourned my stupid mistake later on that evening. "How did I not remember? I saw you on the special! You had a voice modifier, but then Izzy turned up and you were immediately exposed! I remember now, but how did I forget, even once?"

"You did better than Double B!" Sierra reminded me, putting an arm around my shoulders. "Stop beating yourself up about it – I would've felt seriously cheated if anyone but me had won a trivia challenge. I wouldn't be shocked if Chris was trying to get me into the final three." She giggled. "Except he doesn't actually like me, so I'm guessing that wasn't the plan. Point is, you got second anyway. You are the average Total Drama fan with a good memory. I am _way_ past average."

I gave a sigh. "I guess you're right. Anyway, that means you get to choose who we vote off tonight, and I'll have to resign myself to a tiebreaker. Or a double elimination."

"It won't be a double." Sierra said confidently. "Chris is definitely going to have two more episodes planned, and it's not like Mutiny on The Soundstage. There was always going to be an extra episode after the race through the season was over. It was just that half of it was used to break an unplanned tie."

"Okay." I sighed. "So...have you changed your mind, or are we still voting..." I paused just before I said the name, "Brick?"

Yeah, Sierra had wanted to vote for Brick, but I would've chosen Beth. For me, I just thought it was only fair. While I would have rather gone against Beth, she'd already had a shot at the finale. I had too, of course, but I was biased on wanting to win. If someone else had to win, I would've wanted someone who had lost their first chance unfairly, like the girl who just wanted to give her crush a good birthday, or the guy who had been voted off for saving a few lives. Besides, Brick was disciplined and honourable, and it would be easy to use that against him in the finale.

But Sierra was adamant. "He's the biggest threat. I wouldn't want to go up against him in the finale."

So we did. But as I had guessed, Double B had both voted for me. And as for Chris' choice of tiebreaker? Well, he exercised his usual oh-so-wonderful habit of making up rules, and sent me off to get flushed, because...I'd won less challenges this season? Well, I was mad. Double B both gave me sympathetic looks, and I knew they weren't happy with it either, because although they'd chosen for me to go, they didn't think it was fair to take me out that way. Sierra's dark eyes flashed, and she walked me down to the Flush of Shame, talking at length about how unfair it was.

I didn't get into the elimination device until I'd said my last words. I smiled at the final three. "I'll miss you guys. At least I made it to the final four. Play hard. And Sierra, I'm counting on you to win this one!"

And then, one minute later, I was spinning in the clear water, mouth clamped shut and hoping I would survive the trip.

 **Not the greatest of endings, but hey, Danni was never going to make it to the finale a second time. I didn't think it would be fair for her to pull a Zoey and make it to the final three twice, either. So...next up, an exclusive clip, a happy reunion, and a look at what everyone else has been up to.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Let's keep going, shall we? Thanks for reviewing, La Rosa Rossa, Nicky Haugh, Lord Of The Sloths, Bloodylilcorpse, Pokemon FTW, The Phenomenal Flair, DannyPhantom619 and SuperKitty4789.**

I surfaced at some kind of...wait...I looked up. I was floating in a river, but above me was...was that the Eiffel Tower? How in the HELL did the pipes lead to Paris?

At that moment, a weird white boat thing was coming towards me, and I had to quickly swim to the side. And as I did, a very familiar hand was extended to me. Without thinking one moment, I took it.

And I smiled. "Lightning! How did you know I would be here?"

My boyfriend shrugged. "We get all the footage. After the pre-merge losers were gone, one of them had to pick up a post-merge loser. Why _wouldn't_ I choose you? Same thing with Al. He picked up Heather." Then he grinned and whispered to me "They are actually getting really annoying. All they do is whisper to each other and kiss occasionally."

I frowned. "But...how come we're in France? Is everyone here?"

"Oh, yeah. " Lightning paused, thinking. "Yeah. Everyone got dropped off in different places. The chopper should be here soon. We're on the mainland of Muskoka. I actually ended up here, too, but got mixed up and thought it was Germany at first."

I giggled. "Yeah? Well, it doesn't matter. It's Paris, and as long as we're in the City of Love..."

But at that _very_ second, the chopper showed up to take us home. Oh well. We made up for lost time in there instead. If we hadn't had a pilot, we would probably have gone much further than making out.

And not having more than ten minutes in Paris was made up for by seeing everyone else. Anne Maria and I finally got a proper chance to hang out, for one thing. Just as Lightning had said, Heather and Alejandro had finally got it together and become an actual couple, and they were actually pretty adorable. Justin was his old self, and so was Zoey (thank every entity, I'd missed the old her). Owen was the life and soul of the party as usual, and seemed to be getting along really well with everyone, mostly. Zoey and Lindsay in particular seemed to have built up a strong friendship with him. Scott was just the opposite, hanging around in the background with a scowl. He hadn't made any friends. Even Duncan wouldn't hang out with him, claiming he was too much of a misery. He spent most of his time with his girlfriend, or with everyone.

There were two people I was the most curious about.

Gwen was the first. I'd been glad when she was voted off, because she could finally do what she wanted – make up with Courtney. I wanted to find out how she'd done with it.

Well, she seemed in a better mood than she had been on the island. It turned out she _had_ managed to get Courtney's contact details off Bridgette, and had been emailing her. "I said in my first email that I was sorry about how things happened, and I really wanted to make things up to her." she told me. "She's kind of a bit mad that I haven't actually broken up with Duncan, but I think as long as we skirt around that subject, things will work okay. She's actually answering in a way that's pretty friendly, so I think it's going well."

The one person I was more curious and concerned for was Mike. He showed up to greet me with everyone else, and I made an effort to ask how progress was going. He seemed happier than he had been when he left the island.

"I've talked to my psychiatrist." he told me. "She told me that it's normal to have some relapses, and as long as I work on some mind-blocking exercises, I should be able to lock him back up."

Zoey told me a little more about the personality, when it was just the two of us. "We get all the footage from the show," she explained, "So I got to see the clip of him breaking your watch. And Duncan knows him. They were in juvie together. He said back then, Mike wasn't just in juvie – he was running it. Obviously we know it was the personality. But all Duncan could tell us apart from that is that the personality called himself Mal." Zoey shuddered as she told me all this. "I'm just glad we caught it before it was too late."

I paused, thinking. "You know, the world 'mal' is actually a French word meaning 'bad'. You know how the name Mallory means unfortunate? Similar thing. Sounds like this one made up the name for himself. Maybe he really is pure evil. Did he say much in the footage?"

Zoey shook her head. "Nope. Mostly just did a lot of laughing when he was breaking stuff. But you remember how I thought Mike said something at the second campfire? That was him. But..." she smiled. "The good thing is that I haven't seen any personality except Mike since I got here!"  
"And you've spent, what, twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes with him each day?" I teased, grinning. Zoey giggled, launching a pretend attack, and I dodged, laughing too. Trust me, giggle marathons may not be so good for the heart rate, but for good feelings, they really help. At least, this one did.

I watched all the footage of All-Stars that we had so far, just to check things out for myself. We had a lot of extra stuff that wouldn't make it into the final cut of the episode – extended confessionals, stuff like that. It also looked like the cameras were turned off on break days, as nothing from those days appeared, although they did keep clips of me and Lightning hanging out on challenge days, when we weren't with our teams. I also got to watch a confessional where Heather explained why she asked to form an alliance with me. Her theory was that if she befriended me, she'd make sure the rest of the cast would take Lightning out in the next week and then she'd be a shoulder to cry on, and then she'd be able to make a final two deal with me. She figured she'd take me out in the final three if the other opponent was weaker, " _Although to be fair, I think I can take her."_ she'd said thoughtfully.

I was the only one watching those before-my-elimination episodes, mostly. Sometimes a few of the others joined me. "We all watch each episode as it gets here." Lightning explained to me. "So we saw all the episodes after we got eliminated." But he watched some of the early ones with me, although it wasn't that easy to concentrate when he was constantly pulling me closer...I missed about half the challenges because we were too busy making out. It was just lucky no one else came into the TV room at those times...or at least, they didn't make their presence known.

The day after my arrival, we received the footage for the latest episode, and, to be honest, there wasn't too much new to see. Just a few confessionals, where Sierra talked about how excited she was for the trivia challenge, and Brick saying that it was a pretty nerve-wracking challenge. Then Beth had one more confessional about the vote-off, saying how she knew it would be a tiebreaker, but she didn't know who Sierra and I would vote for. However, everyone else seemed excited to know, often pitching in with answers themselves.

"How do you mess up an answer when he _mentioned_ ecualyptus leaves in the question?" Gwen said in exasperation when I screwed up the question about which animal she and Courtney had to feed during the tiebreaker in World Tour (baby koalas, and I'd had a moron moment when I thought it was wallabies).

I shrugged. "I've never been to Australia. I barely know what fruit bats eat, and it's there in the name!"

The day after we got the trivia challenge footage, we had another pickup. This time, it was Lindsay's turn to pick up whoever got flushed. As Lightning told me, after the merge, an ex-All-Star who was closest to the person voted out got to go to them. For me, Heather and Duncan, that meant our boyfriend or girlfriend. But if I reflected on who was and wasn't there now...well, okay. If it had been Sierra, she would have been picked up by me. She wasn't friendly with any of the Villains, and I'd definitely been her closest friend on the Heroes, even though I'd been closer to Mike and Zoey (history – we'd been through Season 4 together). And I didn't know who Brick was closest to who had been voted off. No one really disliked him, but the only person he'd really forged a close friendship with was Beth.

But since Lindsay was doing the picking up...well, that was easy. Lindsay had to go because her best friend got flushed all the way to Hawaii. With a cherry instead of a marshmallow.

No, I'm not kidding. Once they were back, Beth (as if you didn't know it was her) explained that all of them had to make and then eat sundaes by getting all the ingredients from different parts of the island. The only reason she'd come in last was because by the time she got to the finish line, the others were already eating and they'd both downed the cherry on top of each before she got the chance. And as we all knew, last place in a final three challenge usually meant instant elimination.

"Chris told us we were supposed to give the sundaes to the interns before we started." Beth sighed. "I only discovered at the end that we had to eat them. Brick asked what they'd get to eat, but Chris just shrugged. I hope they got something in the end."

"Did anyone get a brain freeze?" Owen asked. "I remember having that in the first season." (Oh yeah, ice cream brain freeze was one of the tortures in that post-merge episode).

"Everyone did." Beth answered. "It's the only reason I got close to not losing – I only had it happen once, and Brick had it happen twice. You could tell Sierra was no stranger to frozen sugar."

We didn't get a chance to watch the sundae-making trek, because tomorrow would be the finale. We'd all be going back to the island, and...well, wow. Sierra vs Brick. I never would've predicted that final two.

 **Be honest...how many of you thought at the start that Sierra or Brick would make the finale? I know a lot of you expected Sierra to be on the verge of elimination a lot, but...well, I think she deserved a shot at winning.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay. Finale time! And time for someone to win this! Thanks for your reviews, Pokemon FTW, Lord of the Sloths, SuperKitty4789, Nicky Haugh, North Neon, Bloodylilcorpse and The Phenomenal Flair.**

"Why, Chris? WHY?!"

These were the words I wanted to scream that morning. However, doing that would mean taking in more toxic gas than my lungs could handle. I'd probably have terrible cramps as it was, being stuffed in here.

Yeah, you got that. Chris decided to have Owen use the effects of...er...roughage to blow up balloons, and somehow, he stuffed everyone except the first guy off inside one. Okay, so we'd checked and they couldn't hold too much of the air for long. They'd pop within five minutes, so we'd all live. But, as he explained, if the other competitors shot us down, we'd have to help them with the final challenge.

Well, I would be happy to help Sierra. I was rooting for her. I wouldn't have minded if Brick won, but I would feel a little weird if I was to help him win right in front of my friend.

But oh well. I was starting to feel like I'd do anything as long as it got me out of this balloon prematurely!

Guess what? I didn't.

Yeah, I'm sure you were expecting me to tell you I had to help someone, but actually, no. Four people got shot down, and they had to help.

Brick got one Hero and one Villain. But it was Zoey and Anne Maria. Well, that was probably good. It was lucky their fight over Mike/Vito had ceased. Otherwise those two couldn't have worked together. Yeeeaah...don't tell Zoey I said that.

Sierra, though...she got both Villains. And, well, I didn't mind seeing Lightning help her. He knew we were friends and since he couldn't win, the least he could do is help my friend win. I knew he'd do it. Lightning was in for the win because of the idea of just winning, not the million dollars. He'd do his best, even if it was just for Sierra and not for himself or anyone he really cared about.

Sierra's other helper was Alejandro. And while I didn't know him very well, I sort of sensed just from his performance in World Tour that his big motivation in the show was honour before money. Heather was always in it for the money. But Alejandro was more about wanting to prove himself to himself, and everyone else who happened to be watching, too. I was sure, no matter how much Sierra disliked him, that he'd try his best to help her.

In fact, after the balloons had popped, I saw Sierra saying something to Alejandro. Something menacing if I judged by her expression, but she was speaking too quietly for me to hear.

But I heard Alejandro's reply. "I'm aware you despise me, Sierra, but I am obligated to help you. I am not planning to throw a challenge. I don't have any preference between you and your opponent, so I am not opposed to helping you."

Chris explained the whole thing to everyone listening. Basically, the finalists had to cross three moats. On the first level, there was toxic waste. Kind of a reference to Revenge, right? The third was lava – an obvious homage to the finale of World Tour. The third held plain water...and Fang. Kind of a "back to basics" feel, probably referring to the first season.

So where did Action come in? Well, after crossing all those moats, the finalists would have to continue to the top of the moat pyramid on their own, where there was a sword in the stone. Above, Chef would use his pasta bazooka to shoot at the finalists. The person who got the sword out of the stone first became the Ultimate All-Star and the winner of the season.

Well, what did you want me to say? There were a bunch of different things to help them get across each moat. So Alejandro noticed the bamboo immediately and suggested Sierra pole-vault, which got her across before Brick, who had more trouble getting across. As it turned out, Anne Maria's hairspray made some of the objects durable enough to float them across (Zoey tested this theory, despite the protests), but still, it took longer, while Sierra reached the other side of the toxic waste in one swift move.

But Brick caught up pretty quickly, looking at all the objects designed to help. Sierra, however, impulsively leapt on the pink pogo stick, and jumped just high enough that it propelled her past the lava.

However, Brick picked up his ladder from the toxic waste to the lava and just walked across, easily reaching the third moat seconds before Sierra.

By this point, the helpers were only just behind them. Apart from the ideas about getting past the toxic waste, the two didn't really need much help – there was a reason why they'd made it this far.

This time, both of them did what Brick had done before – use their ladder up from the lava to get across without attracting Fang's attention. They had to be more careful, of course, and Fang did end up breaking Sierra's ladder, but luckily, she managed to cling to the edge of the moat and pull herself out of the water before he could attack her.

By this point, I didn't know who would win. Brick had far more formal training than Sierra, and if he could win the Obsta-Kill Course, than getting the sword out of the stone and dodging Chef should've been all too easy. But Sierra had her own way of doing things, and, weird as it sometimes was, it almost always worked. Right down to the last second, it was anyone's game!

So who actually won?

Sierra. Just. She and Brick were actually both pulling at the sword. It came out with both of them pulling. All it depended on was who hung onto it once it was pulled out, and the force of it coming out combined with the force from the otherside managed to knock Brick backwards, leaving Sierra as the sole survivor. The Ultimate All-Star.

We all took a boat home, with Sierra excitedly bouncing up and down and clutching her million-dollar suitcase. Brick, as runner-up, looked a bit disappointed, but he congratulated Sierra bravely and several of the other competitors, mostly the Heroes, all congratulated him on getting that far, especially since it was possibly the closest finale yet.

After offering Brick a few words myself, I went back to my all-starry friend and sat down. "So what are you going to do with the money?" I asked. "In World Tour, you mentioned getting your arms extended, and a million-dollar statue of Cody or something like that, right?"

Sierra giggled. "I can't believe I said those things! No, I see the real Cody enough now that we're friends. Although I definitely will spend some money on an artisan cake for him, with tons of sweets on top. Sugar is his weakness – whenever he's mad at me, I just buy him gourmet jelly beans and all is forgiven!"

I giggled too. "So where's the rest of it going?"

"I guess I'll have to put some away for college..." Sierra said thoughtfully. "I was going to take out a loan but now I can pay by myself. I'm still going to be in Canada, though – I think Mom might need me atm, but I don't mind. As for whatever's left..." She broke out into one of her crazy grins. "Remember how you, me, Zoey, Lindsay and Beth all discussed going out and having cocktails at the start of the competiton?"

I nodded.

"I'm going to blow it on a luxury hotel suite and the five of us are going to have a proper girls' night and sleepover in style!" Sierra declared. "It'll just be the five of us, though. There'll probably be some money left over, so I'll probably just throw a less elaborate reunion party, but-" She leaned forward to whisper to me "I heard Chris on his phone. He's supposed to be hosting another show straight after this one, so I'll get details on the new cast and hold the party after the season so they can come!"

I grinned back at her. Despite some of the scarier parts of this season, it had been a blast. I'd liked it nearly as much as the last one. But in spite of it all, I was pretty glad to be going home.

 **If you've read "Total Exploded Pahkitew Island" or "The Ridonculously Exploded Race", you'll probably guess of a certain OC who will be making a guest appearance in the next chapter. Sorry this took so long to come out...this finale was pretty dull.**


	18. Chapter 18

**OK, bring on the sleepover, the reunion party, and before all that, the watching of All-Stars! Thanks for reviewing, Nicky Haugh, Lord of the Sloths, SuperKitty4789, DannyPhantom619, Pokemon FTW and The Phenomenal Flair.**

Just like last year, the whole cheer squad came over to my house to watch the premiere of the first episode of Total Drama All-Stars. However, two of the girls were absent – I hadn't known them well, because they were in the year below me. They were twins, flyers with big turquoise eyes and fair hair.

"You know why they're not here, right?" one of the seniors said. "They're supposed to be on the next season, and it's starting in, like, two days."

"You know what one of them told me?" one of the frosh girls said, giggling. "That she only auditioned for the show so she could stay with the other! And I thought they didn't like each other."

"I don't know." one of the sophomores said, frowning. "One of them – you know, the one everyone calls Samey – told me that she auditioned to get _away_ from Amy. I don't get why."

We didn't think much about it, and forgot about the twins being on the next season. We'd have to wait for it to come out.

Sierra made good on her promise for our girls' night. We all ordered in cocktails and room service, again playing more stupid games and styling hair and makeup. Sierra blogged about it nonstop, which was a little annoying, but it didn't matter too much.

Lindsay had to convince Zoey to order a daiquiri, but after a first sip, my redheaded friend smiled and admitted "You're right, Linds. This kind of drink really does make me stop dreading drinks!"

We all giggled, all trying our own cocktails. Beth had ordered a margarita, me a sidecar, while Lindsay wanted a ramos gin fizz and Sierra decided on a Mai Tai, but we all enjoyed them equally. We didn't even want to experiment and just ordered repeats. Zoey stopped after two, but Beth and I both had three, and Sierra had five. We had the good sense to stop Lindsay from ordering a seventh, though – she was starting to make even less sense than usual. For one thing, she'd asked if the entire cheer squad was also part of a synchro team, when most high schools only had one regular swim team! Even Lindsay would have known something like that.

Apart from the cocktails, we raided the minibar (hey, it was a luxury night, spare no expenses) and...well, let's just say that by the end of the night, all that was left was a few of those tiny milk containers.

Apart from the food and drink, we mostly spent the night sitting around, talking and trying out new styles on each other. Despite Zoey being a lightweight drinker due to her inexperience and saying she kept coming over dizzy because of it, me knowing I was a bit tipsy and not really caring, Beth suddenly having way too much energy and being unsually restless for such a careful person, Sierra being at her most exuberant and giggly and Lindsay clearly being completely hammered, we actually managed to have a great night, all of which we agreed was a night to remember.

Well, except Lindsay, but she forgot things so easily already that her forgetting our sleepover night was nothing new. And when she woke up the next morning, the first words out of her mouth were "When can we do this again?"

While All-Stars was still airing, the channel was showing auditions of the newbies. When I checked Sierra's blogs after seeing a few, she already had all the names and stereotypes ("UNDER CONSTRUCTION") and had based them on the auditions.

I saw the twins' (from our squad) audition tapes apart, but when I heard the quieter one speak, I was legitimately surprised when she began with "I'm Sammy, not Samey...I don't even know why I said that." I knew the other girls called her Samey, but I didn't know her that well, so I'd never called her anything. It hadn't entered my head what her real name might be. And judging by her denial about being called that at all and claiming she didn't have a sister, she would rather be called Sammy.

I saw Amy's audition a few days after that, and I couldn't believe it. I hadn't known Amy that well, either, but it was clear from the first five seconds of her audition tape that she was only auditioning for Total Drama to show her sister who was better. Wow. If I could tell them apart when they came back, I'd have to talk to the squad about that. Amy really _was_ the rich bitch stereotype most of us tried to avoid, while Sammy seemed shy and sweet.

The other competitors whose auditions I saw seemed...weird. A few of them seemed normal, like a Mulan lookalike who mentioned she'd miss her boyfriend but said she was willing to do what it took to win and a boy who stammered out most of it before declaring that he'd play viciously. But then, there was a boy who declared that he wanted to be on Total Drama as a step to taking over the world and that he was much more evil than anyone who'd been on the show before (yeah, and he admitted that he babysits...I'd be surprised if none of the kids he sat for were taller than him). And there was a girl who declared she should be on Total Drama because she'd been in some commercial. Weirdness! I did like the more athletic types. One boy spent his audition just showing his climbing and dodging skills, and despite some mention that made me think he might have a little problem with horror movies, he seemed cool. Another girl was wearing a track team top and had an athlete's build, which made me think she'd be one to watch in the physical challenges.

I discussed some of the newbies with Lightning, and he agreed with me. "I used to run track." he told me. "But it was kinda dull. No point in running unless it's to win a game, you know?"

I pretended to be shocked. "So there's no point in running for, like, a bus? Or for racing down a dock?"

"Hey, if Lightning's racing you, then there's a difference." Lightning pointed out. "Who wouldn't want to impress their girl?"

The new season, Total Drama Pahkitew Island, aired two weeks after we were all back at school. I was finally in senior year and the last cheer captain had left, making me hope I had a chance at being captain this year. But whatever happened, the twins did the same thing I had and invited the squad to their house to watch the premiere of the show.

It wasn't too hard to tell the twins apart when they were together. I figured out soon enough that Amy had a mole on her face and Sammy didn't. Sadly, this also meant Amy had a lot of moments where the rest of us were giving her hard looks.

Scenes such as kicking Sammy off her when they were all falling from the sky and Amy knew that Sammy might not have a parachute (she did, but onscreen Amy actually seemed annoyed), and when she used Sammy as a shield from tennis balls (and told her to stop squealing every time she was hit)...all that kind of thing. She was also pretty rude to a big guy on her team called Rodney.

Sammy went a bit pink, too, when she watched the scene when she tried to correct Chris on her name and he refused to listen to her protests. And when she stated in her confessional about auditioning to get away from Amy.

Whatever, though. We couldn't just kick Amy off the squad. We needed the symmetry with the twins. They were two of the best flyers we had, although after two more episodes of Amy's abuse, none of us could really find it in us to like her anymore. However, most people were being extra nice to Sammy, the more her team talked her down.

Then, the day came. Sierra sent everyone a message for her reunion party, and the day before, she put up an RSVP list on her blog. Apparently, everyone was coming except Ezekiel (still feral), Noah (parties just weren't his thing), Scott (he just didn't want to and didn't say why), and Scarlett (she was from the last season and was stuck in a correctional facility for the time being after threatening to let Pahkitew Island explode with five of the other competitors if Chris wouldn't give her the million).

Funny thing, though...the girl in the track team shirt (her name was Julie) was treated as a major threat after Scarlett was gone, but the only reason for that seemed to be because she'd listened in on other people's confessionals. Sky (the Mulan lookalike) accused her of poor sportsmanship, but she seemed just like anyone else at the party. She wasn't treated as a villain by anyone else, unlike some of the other low-key villains who were only trying to win like Lightning (he was just kind of a jerk to most people, even though he was fine outside of the competition or with me) and even Courtney (she didn't really trick people or do underhand stuff that much, unlike, say, Heather). At one point, I saw her chatting away to Tyler like she'd known him for years.

When I finally got close enough, Julie spotted me and immediately grinned at me. "Hi! You're Danni, right? I remember watching you on Revenge of The Island, I mean, I was really rooting for B at first and then after he was gone I liked Lightning but you were honestly my third choice!"

I let out a chuckle. "Then you won't mind me telling you that I liked your best friend on the island better than you?" I was referring to Ella, Julie's sugar-sweet friend who danced around humming, like she thought she was in a Disney movie. Even now, she was happily talking to Anne Maria, who was looking more and more bored with every second, but Ella didn't seem to notice.

Julie gave a sigh. "Well, if I had my way in the final four, I would've taken Ella with me. She's a lot stronger than she looks, but..." and she smiled wickedly. "She would've been easy to beat! I don't mind that Sky won, though. If it couldn't be me, it could at least be someone I respected."

"You still like Sky?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Who doesn't like Sky?" Julie shrugged. "Well, her ex-boyfriend probably hates her now since she dumped him for Dave, but she would have dumped him anyway. She doesn't like _me_ much any more, but I would've liked to stay friends with her if not for her disliking me now and all." She smiled. "Oh well, Shawn knows all about my listening in too, but he's pretty much how he always was with me." (He was the other finalist – the guy I'd mentioned who seemed to always think he was in a zombie movie).

"Was he really that paranoid?" I asked. "Or was he relatively okay?"

Julie laughed. "Both! Oh, he was paranoid all right." she giggled. "He never talked about anything except the impending apocalypse...well, and the challenges, and Jasmine, of course." (Jasmine was a cool Australian girl – in fact, she and Shawn were across the room from us right now). "But he was cool, too. He was actually way more reasonable than most of our team."

I grinned at that. I could imagine that with her way-too-into-LARPing teammate Leonard and the pageant queen Sugar (who did nothing but pick on Ella), Shawn really was one of the normal ones.

I got around almost everyone that evening. I was really pleased to talk to some of the gen-1 contestants I hadn't had a chance to meet properly. Geoff and Bridgette were just as nice as they were on camera. Courtney, who I found talking to Gwen and being actually pretty friendly, seemed a lot more relaxed than she was when she hadn't just been locked in a crate. Justin I didn't like much, but Katie and Sadie seemed less annoying off camera.

As for the party itself? Well, Sierra had actually had enough money to rent a public pool just for all of us, so that was fun. I mean, at least I got to show off my swimming skills without worrying about my clothes weighing me down this time. I even challenged some of the major athletes to a race, including Lightning and even Jo, who insisted. Brick. Eva, Tyler and Sky also joined the race. And, perhaps not surprisingly, it was the bodybuilders who couldn't keep up. Soon, there was just me and Sky in the lead. And as for the winner?

Sky. I'd known that her skills as a gynmast were off the charts, but I hadn't really seen her swimming. I guessed, that like me, her upper-body strength was an asset.

"So I guess one of the first Olympic events you'll use the money to train for is going to be swimmng?" I asked after the race was over. "I remember you mentioning that in one of your confessionals."

Sky smiled politely. "Well, yes. One of them. But there's a lot of events I'll be training for and swimming isn't the only one on the list."

Something she'd told Dave sparked in my memory. "Is rhythmic gymnastics at the top of your list? You told Dave your sister was in that, if I remember that episode right."

Sky raised an eyebrow. "You pay attention to detail. I did say that."

I shrugged. "I just remembered because Dave mentioned how he has the problem of always saying dumb things when he's about to tell a girl he likes her, and I remembered how he did that back then. If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm glad you won the last season. There were some people on the season who didn't deserve it, and I'm not sure Shawn really needed what he would've spent the money on...unless it turns out every conspiracy nut was right, you know?"

"Well, thanks." Sky said, obviously not sure how to continue the conversation. She made some excuse and left.

After the party, I reflected on my time as a reality TV celeb. Even though Ronan had talked me into it, I realized that I actually had sort of enjoyed competing. I mean, if I thought about it, I'd built a rocket, won an ice-skating contest, faced my fear of thunderstorms and done so much more. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I'd done it twice. Even though there were some awful times on the island, all the friends I'd made and the sheer experience were all worth it.

This is Danni Kramer, signing out!

Oh, and PS: I'm deputy cheer captain.

 **Well, that's it. This is the end of Danni's story. I hope you enjoyed following her through the two stories and that you weren't disappointed with the ending. I'll be working more on The Ridonculously Explode Race from now on, so hope you continue reading that!**


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